The Kid's Going To Be All Right
by BohemianWanderer
Summary: After Tuddrussel and Larry reunite with Otto, they soon realize that saying "sorry" isn't going to cut it this time around. After 'Orphan Substitute"
1. Mission Accomplished

1492, Spain.

"What's wrong with you?" Otto yelled. He glared at Tuddrussel and Larry, who were shocked at Otto's behavior, but also were feeling incredibly guilty for what had happened. "I can't believe you just left me like that! You went and got someone else, and got someone who probably knows less about history than you two put together!"

"Hey now, you need to just calm down," Tuddrussel said, trying to reason with him. "I know this looks bad but there is no need to make a scene here." The officer sheepishly smiled, he knew deep down this wasn't going to help him, but the poor man was trying his best. Otto didn't want to calm down for Tuddrussel's sake, if he was embarrassed of a little kid scolding him like he was the parent and Tuddrussel and Larry were the kids then by all means he felt entitled to it. He clinched his fists, ready to fire out more lecture. "You two have no idea how horrible that was, do you? It was one thing to leave me stranded on a deserted island; at least I know that was an accident. But this is just. . .I can't even begin to tell you how awful that was, I mean how could you just not- well, care?"

Larry looked exasperated, he felt so terrible for the child. He knelt down beside him, placing a hand on Otto's shoulder, noticing that he flinched as he touched him gently. "I'm so sorry Otto, I know this has been a difficult day for you, and Tuddrussel and I are feeling absolutely terrible about this whole thing." Otto wanted to just run off again, even if he was back with Larry and Tuddrussel like he had hoped, wished, begged, and prayed for to come back to him just a little while back. He pushed Larry's hand away and quietly said, "Whatever, you guys just stay here; I'll go talk to Columbus and get the mission complete. That is why I'm here anyway." Otto said coldly. He walked off from them to go talk to Christopher Columbus, who was unsuccessfully trying to get seagulls away from his hot dog stand.

Tuddrussel and Larry watched him silently, seeing how easily Otto could perk up and pretend that rant never occurred, it was kind of bewildering. Larry crossed his arms and looked at Tuddrussel severely, giving him a very evil glare indeed. Tuddrussel defensively asked, "What?" "You know _what._" Larry said. "Now you've gone and done it. We're never going to hear the end of this and I for one can't blame him. What we did was inexcusable, absolutely traumatic! He's got enough problems without our help, and you screwed up in the worst possible way." Tuddrussel huffed in annoyance, having to deal with lectures from both Otto and Larry is more than he could stand. "Get off my case Larry, that kid is just being dramatic, which he wouldn't be if he wasn't around _you_ all the time! Seriously, what's his deal? If I had known that Sister Ratched lady was going to be in the same place as us I would have stopped him from leaving, but I didn't, ok? Yeah I shouldn't have made you go look for another kid when we have this one and I know it was stupid but it's not like we were going to totally abandon him or something."

"Well it sure did seem like we were, can you even comprehend the idea that he was scared out of his mind?" Larry said, poking Tuddrussel's chest. "After this I think it would be best if you didn't talk to him for the rest of the day." Tuddrussel looked back to Otto, who was having some in-depth conversation with the explorer. Under his breath he said, "That's not going to be a problem."

"And so if you just go to Queen Isabella about it I'm sure she will be more than willing to help." Otto said. He was smiling for real now, happy to be working again, and with such an easy going person! Columbus was only working a hot dog stand to help pay for his own expeditions, and wasn't enjoying the lifestyle at all. But Otto managed to talk him into asking the king and queen for funding a second time. "You make it seem so easy, how do you manage that?" Columbus asked. Otto shrugged, "I don't make it easy, it IS easy. You did it once, you just need to do it again when the timing is right, and it's now or never. So get over to their summer home up that hill over there and do it!" Columbus took off his apron and dropped it on the stand. "You're right, who would have thought a child such as yourself would tell me all this, well I believe I'll go to the palace right this minute, screw the formalities!" Columbus gleefully said. Otto gasped, he did get the mission complete within ten minutes. "All right!" Otto said. Columbus took off his overcoat and turned it inside out, revealing a more clean and formal coat best suited for meeting royals. He looked over at the mirror that was propped up on the side of a building, taking off his hat to smooth out his frizzed out hair. "Those two gentlemen over there, you belong to them?" Columbus casually asked as he put his hat back on. Otto's cheerful face turned back to somber when he mentioned them. "Yeah." He said quietly.

"Hmm… you don't seem so sure."

Otto felt confused by that, how could he not be sure? That was his family, even if he was very angry at them. "I'm sure. It's just that, well, it's been a very bad day."

"I see. I noticed that they were coming over here with a different boy for a while before you showed up. Are they your brothers?"

Otto was getting that sick, burning feeling in his stomach and chest again. He had been getting that feeling all day with his cheeks feeling like they were on fire. Had Tuddrussel and Larry been taking other kids besides the one he did see? Otto could feel the tears coming on but he couldn't dare let them out, not there. "No, I'm an only child, and I'm an orphan. They couldn't find me so they tried to help you another way." Otto said, his voice cracking from holding back the emotions he so desperately wanted to hide. "How many times did they come over here with another boy?" Otto asked, curious to know how many times they chose to waste time trying to find him. Columbus thought about it for a moment, "I believe it was only four or five times. "

"okay." Otto said, disappointed in his friends loyalty. He looked over at Tuddrussel, who was arguing with Larry, _of course_. Otto shook his head and put on another smile, looking at Columbus he said, "Well I better get going. I have faith that everything will turn out fine as long as you do what I had said." Columbus nodded, "Thank you again, Otto. You truly have a gift; those two over there must have been crazy if they were looking for someone else. I hope you can get things settled with them soon."

"Thanks." Otto smiled faintly, not bothering to hide the true feeling of sorrow that he felt on the inside. He waved goodbye to the Italian explorer and told him good luck as they moved away from each other. Otto took a deep breath and shoved his hands into his pockets, sulking back with a heavy heart to the only people he could go to, or ever want to go to. He wasn't sure what to do, he wanted to just scream and kick and cry, but he couldn't do that, that's what babies do. That's what Tuddrussel and Larry would do under stress. At the orphanage Otto wouldn't dare do that in front of anyone, especially Sister Thornley, it was for one humiliating, it was also a cause for a public attitude adjustment. Otto winced at the thought of her, with her wrath still fresh in his mind he remembered how she really let him have it after getting back to the orphanage earlier that afternoon, and if her cruel chastising wasn't enough she kept piling on what seemed like never ending punishment. "_If you don't have those potatoes peeled by the time I get back I'll take you outside and make you cut your own switch!" _He remembered her threats all to well. It was hell, pure and simple.

But while Otto was glad to have Time Squad again, he couldn't get over the fact that it just seemed like they were trying to get rid of him at one point. Why would that be? All because of some stupid argument over a video game? He felt lost, and felt deeply hurt by the two people who were the only thing close to what he could call family. He saw that Tuddrussel and Larry noticed that he was coming back and stopped bickering. They waited patiently as he walked. When he got to them he stopped in his tracks and took his hands out of his pockets to adjust his glasses, which he noticed were a little unbalanced on his face.

"So how did it go?" Larry asked. Without looking at him, Otto said, "Mission accomplished. He took it really well." Tuddrussel scratched his head, unsure of what to do, he wanted to congratulate him on a job well done, but he wasn't willing to annoy him like Larry feared. "Well I for one can't wait to get home; there is so much to do to prepare for dinner tonight- chicken teriyaki with miso soup. I know how much you like Japanese cuisine Otto." Otto didn't seem impressed, but he was very hungry and politely told Larry thank you. Larry sighed; he didn't know what to do with him. He typed in the coordinates for home and pressed the button that zapped them off the face of the Earth.


	2. Boundaries

It was six o' clock at night when they got back home. Larry went into the kitchen to prepare dinner, trying his best to keep the two humans under control for the evening as it wore on. Normally at this time Tuddrussel and Otto would have been ether playing video games or romping about the corridors causing chaos as they went. But it was very quiet, and very still on the satellite. Tuddrussel kept to himself in his workout room, working out his biceps with the forty pound weights with no problem. Otto was curled up on the sofa in the living room, reading one of his more casual books, _"The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy." _Larry would have normally been glad that everything was peaceful for once, but he couldn't help but think deep down in his hard drive that a hammer was about to shatter that peace. Maybe he was imagining it, but he still kept on his toes for any sign of trouble.

As he finished cleaning the chicken and began to cut it up into pieces to fry he heard the sound of the door sliding open. Larry turned his head to see who entered, it was Tuddrussel. The man had obviously been working out like crazy. His chest was moving rhythmically up and down as he panted softly, he must have been jogging. Strangely this powerfully built figure that seemed so calm for once was making Larry subconsciously quiver down below. He mischievously smiled, tilting his head as he watched Tuddrussel reach into the refrigerator for his water bottle. His eyes magnified to just watching that clear liquid squirt into his mouth, so cool and refreshing that must have been, the robot thought. Tuddrussel had not been paying attention to the robot, and as he leaned his body back to level to catch his breath he caught Larry out of the corner of his peripheral vision. Caught off guard Tuddrussel stammered, "Wha- what are you looking at, ya piece of scrap metal?"

Larry snapped out it, whirling to face him directly. "Look at yourself, spilling water all over your uniform and the floor. Would it kill you to be tidy for once?" Larry said critically. "Well would it kill _you_ to stop being such a rag?" Tuddrussel rudely replied.

Feeling briefly defeated Larry scoffed at him and turned back around to finish dinner.

"I do hope you'll take a shower soon, you look filthy, and you reek." Larry not exactly asked, but was practically demanding. Tuddrussel replaced the water bottle and slammed the refrigerator door shut. "Funny thing about robots, they can't smell. So what makes you special to tell me I stink?" Tuddrussel growled.

Larry laughed to himself, was Tuddrussel trying to be witty? How droll!

"I may not be able to smell Tuddrussel, and honestly I'm glad I don't! But anyone could see the fowl air seeping from you a mile away."

Tuddrussel eyed Larry with frustration, clinching his fists like he was about to beat the crap out of him. Larry gave him no attention, but he was definitely aware of Tuddrussel's brutish anger. He dropped the chicken pieces that were cut up into the skillet and as the chicken sizzled he slowly moved them around; making sure it was cooked all the way through.

"Watch it Larry, I don't feel like putting up with you." Tuddrussel said as he began to walk out of the room. Larry narrowed his eyes at the food, trying to now concentrate on finishing up. But he of course had to have the last word, "You never want to put up with anyone." Larry said curtly.

Tuddrussel heard that clearly, stopping at the door he looked back at the robot with anger. "Larry, so help me I'll clobber you if you make one more smart ass remark." Tuddrussel said ominously. Larry pretended not to care, but he knew he meant it.

"Alright, not another word out of me until dinner is ready- Which will be ready in about ten minutes." Larry said with faux politeness. He sired the miso soup, carefully siring so not to cause a spill. "But I will say this; I don't want to hear your tacky language in front of Otto. It's_ sooo_ unbecoming."

Tuddrussel gritted his teeth, he felt like just shoving the robot's head into that pot of soup and serve it to the mopey kid himself.

Tuddrussel stormed out of the kitchen and walked down the corridor and made a left turn that lead into one of the rumpus rooms, the one where all the trouble started earlier that day. On the sofa lay Otto's scrap book. The beat up old thing waited there helpless for some kind soul to put it back where they found it.

"Why did he make such a fuss over this anyway?" Tuddrussel asked himself. He flipped it open, seeing the candid photos of Otto doing manual labor , the copies of 'official' photos that were taken of him for record keeping, and the more morbid photos of him 'playing' with the other children. "Geez this kid's a loser." Tuddrussel muttered out load. He saw the simpler photos that Otto obviously took himself, such as a worn out scrub brush and a leaky faucet. This kid really had no life if he was taking pictures of this kind of thing. Tuddrussel kept flipping through them casually, until a lone photo dropped out from the back. The photo landed with the picture itself facing the floor. "Aww man, stupid picture!" Tuddrussel whined. He was crouching down to pick it up when he heard someone walking down the corridor just a few feet away. Panicking, Tuddrussel quickly stood up and stepped on the photo to hide it and put the book behind his back. He cautiously watched as a figure appeared, and to his paranoid fear Otto stopped at the door way, looking bemused to see Tuddrussel just standing alone in the room, who didn't bother to hide just how nervous he was.

"Didn't you hear Larry over the intercom? Dinners ready." Otto said plainly. He eyed the officer up and down with suspicion, what WAS he doing here anyway?

"What are you doing?" Otto asked. Tuddrussel looked around him, this did look weird.

"Uhh-umm- nothing! Nothing at all, what's it to you?" Tuddrussel nervously asked.

Otto couldn't except that. He walked over to him, seeing that he was obviously hiding something behind his back. "What are you hiding?" Otto pried. Trying to see what it was he started to look behind Tudd, but the officer was not going to let Otto know. He quickly used one hand to hold Otto back, and try as the boy might he could not get past Tuddrussel's arm. "STOP IT!" Otto yelped.

"Aww you're not having fun? I'm just trying to have some fun, lighten up!" Tuddrussel said, in what seemed to Otto like he was taunting him. "Don't tell me to lighten up." Otto snapped in reply. Tuddrussel quickly threw the book over to a chair and before Otto had time to think what had just happened or what was about to happen he was suddenly picked up by Tuddrussel and carried under his arm as if he were a football.

Furious, Otto ordered for Tuddrussel to put him down, trying to scratch and kick the officer with no effect. Realizing that this failed, Otto stopped struggling and let himself go limp in Tuddrussel's arm. Otto looked up at Tuddrussel, and in what almost sounded like a whimper he tried to reason with him-

"Tuddrussel, please, I'm really not-

" Relax, were just going to eat!" Tuddrussel said. "Otto, you take things way too seriously, live a little!"

Otto growled in defeat, kicking him harder once again with all his might. He could kill the man; he didn't want to be touched at all!

Larry had gone back to the kitchen to take off his chef hat and apron when the door opened to reveal the site of a triumphant looking Buck Tuddrussel with a very irate Otto Osworth held captive. Larry stood there like a very upset mother, with his hands on his hips and staring at Tuddrussel in full deadpan mode. "Tuddrussel, why do you have Otto like that?" Tuddrussel shrugged; and looked down at Otto as the boy lay limp in his arm, who was staring up at him with fury and huffing in frustration. "Honestly after today I'm not sure of why I do anything period." Tuddrussel said with dead seriousness. Larry was caught off guard by a response so unlike Tuddrussel that he almost forgot what he had asked of him in the first place.

"PUT. ME. DOWN!" Otto hollered.

Oh yeah, Otto was still held captive for some reason. "Well now that you've finally admitted that you're a complete moron would you PLEASE put Otto gently down?" Tuddrussel smirked, "You got it." He grabbed the child from under his arm and with both hands he lowered him close enough to the ground to where he could drop him. Otto fell to his feet first, but could not gracefully stay on his feet and landed on his hands and knees. Otto hissed at the pain he felt in his knees, that was a rough landing. Larry took off his chef hat and threw it at Tuddrussel, hitting him square in the face. "HEY!" Tuddrussel shouted. "I said GENTLY!" Larry said, furious.

"Are you alright?" Larry asked as he came towards Otto, who was getting up and smoothing out his clothes. "I'm fine." Otto stammered out. Tuddrussel moved away from the scene and walked towards the table that had the food ready to be consumed. "Otto, why was he carrying you?" Larry asked as he took off his apron and placed it on a hook. Otto thought about the sudden attack. "I think it was cause he was hiding something that he didn't want me to see." Larry turned to look at Tuddrussel, who was stuffing himself with rice and chicken; he cringed at the atrocity of his ill manners.

"Well what on Earth was he trying to hide?" Larry wondered aloud.

He looked at Otto, seeing how he was cradling himself in his arms, looking like he was so hungry that he could eat a horse, but it was like something was preventing him from moving towards the delicious food that was just a few feet away. "Now Otto aren't you hungry?" Larry asked. Otto shook his head with an eager yes.

"Well then get over there and eat, silly." Larry said.

"I don't want to eat with Tuddrussel." Otto said with venom.

Larry didn't understand. "What?" "I said I don't want to eat with Tuddrussel."Otto repeated.

He looked up at Larry with eyes that were gleaming like was about to cry. Larry couldn't stand that, not because it was awkward for him to be with Otto who was so upset but because it was just so wrenched to see him in such a state.

"Now- now, Otto what is the matter?" Larry asked, pulling Otto aside from the view of Tuddrussel.

"I just want to eat alone." Otto meekly said.

Larry was beside himself, he was going to need to have a long talk with Otto about his behavior, but first he would have to start with the man who was picking out pieces of tofu from his soup and flicking them to the wall. What else could he do to keep Tuddrussel from being Tuddrussel and to keep Otto on better terms, and to keep himself from going berserk? "All right, but just for tonight; it's a terrible habit and I don't want you thinking you can just have your meals wherever you please." Otto nodded, and with Larry's permission he walked over to the table and carefully gathered up his plate of food and glass of milk. Tuddrussel watched him take it, and as Otto walked towards the archway to the living room he questioned him with his mouth full, "Where do you think you're going?". Otto ignored him and when upon entering the living room he sat his dinner down on the coffee table. He picked up the remote and turned on the tv, flipping through without much of an interest to what he was looking for. Tuddrussel could not see Otto from where he was sitting, so he just sat there watching the light of the television screen brighten up the walls of the other room.

"What did I tell you?" Larry said from behind Tuddrussel. The man cringed, not this again! "I told you to be on your best behavior for Otto, but you just have to keep pushing it and pushing it until he finally breaks!" Tuddrussel turned to Larry, who had his arms crossed and was looking very stern. "What happened back there? Otto said you were hiding something." Tuddrussel gridded his teeth and stood up. "I was just looking at that book of his and he appeared, and I was just trying to keep him from finding out okay? I didn't think he'd notice I hid it behind my back, and I didn't think he'd go ballistic when I carried him off, it was just foolin' around." Tuddrussel said loudly.

"Shhhhh! Not so loud!" Larry hypercritically replied just as loud. "Well why were you looking through it in the first place? After today I think you could be more respectful of Otto's privacy." Larry said as-a matter-of-factly. Tuddrussel shook his head, thinking that Larry was so full of himself.

"Oh, well excuse me but if I remember correctly it was you who brought it out in the first place." Tuddrussel oddly enough had a point, and that startled Larry.

He was in the bedroom that morning, dusting the various surfaces such as the bookshelf near Otto's bed. He just happened to come across the scrap book that was tucked away so it could easily be over looked. He took it out, curious that it was the only book that didn't have a title on the spine like the others. He flipped it open and saw the pictures, and wondered why Otto never showed, or even mentioned that he had brought this along with him. He cringed to think about it, having the notion to ask Otto if he could look at it is more than he could stand. He saw that Otto didn't appreciate his snooping, but he allowed it. Larry felt so stupid, taking that book out was the cause of all this trouble, and to put all the blame on Tuddrussel wasn't fair.

"Is it okay?" Larry asked.

Tuddrussel could have ripped it in half for all he knew. Tuddrussel jerked his head up, saying, "Of course it is, I just tossed it in a chair."

"Well I better go get it and give it to him. Then we'll have to try to get him out of this funk." Larry said.

Tuddrussel sighed in exasperation, placing his hand over his face. Larry was not amused.

"You don't want to help him, do you?"

Tuddrussel removed his hand to look at Larry, "No I don't. I don't think he needs help. I think he's just putting on a show, trying to push our buttons." Tuddrussel said.

Larry gasped, "Have you even seen him the past couple of hours? He's obviously been trying to hold in his emotions back until his face turns pink! Buck, are you really that selfish that you can't see that he's miserable?" Larry said, poking Tuddrussel's chest.

Tuddrussel grabbed Larry's arm, telling him, "All I see is a stubborn little brat." Larry was appalled at what he had heard. He ripped his arm out of Tuddrussel's grip and said curtly, "Look in the mirror; you're the only stubborn brat I see. You're amazing, you really are. The fact that you refuse to view anyone with sympathy or show kindness is simply tragic. How Otto can stay around you the way he does is a miracle, he puts up with your behavior and attempts comfort you when you're in distress but you can't do the same for him?"

Tuddrussel scoffed at him, "Pff- whatever. I told him I was sorry about everything that happened today, I told him I was sorry four times! I don't know what to do with him."

"How do you think I feel? But at least I try to not upset him, you do it on purpose!"

"I don't ether." Tuddrussel contradicted.

Larry shook his head, it was clear that it was pointless to even bother to talk with Tuddrussel.

"Ugh- forget it! You're so pig headed. Well if you won't help me fix this mess then you don't have to."

Larry turned away from Tuddrussel and briskly walked towards his mission. Tuddrussel sighed, and slumped down at the table. "Stupid Larry, stupid Otto- those two are nothing but sissies." He muttered to himself.

He sat there thinking about what was said, what did that stuffy robot know? It was Otto's own fault for going out on his own and getting caught by that nun. It was his own fault for leaving his scrap book around for anyone to pick it up. It's his fault for allowing himself to get hurt. If karma was giving him a shove, he should punch it in the stomach instead of feeling sorry for himself.

He looked over to the living room and saw that the tv was off. He raised an eyebrow in suspicion, it was just on a few minutes ago, did Otto leave the room, or was he listening in? Tuddrussel's thoughts raced to what was actually heard if Otto had been listening in on the whole conversation. He stood up and quickly walked over to the archway, looking in he saw on the sofa Otto sitting in the fetal position, his face buried in his hands.

"Great…" Tuddrussel muttered under his breath. Otto shook and whimpered, unaware that Tuddrussel was looking. Tuddrussel grimaced, feeling awkward and guilty for why Otto was crying.

"Heh-heh- hey there kid, what cha doing sitting all by yourself?" Tuddrussel clumsily asked.

Otto looked up and saw through his tear smeared glasses Tuddrussel standing in the door way. He gasped for air and sniffed to try to calm himself, but the feelings flowed out all the same. "Go away." Otto whimpered, laying his head on his knees and facing away from seeing the man.

Tuddrussel looked around, hoping that Larry wasn't nearby he nervously walked to the sofa and sat down next to Otto. Otto cringed as he felt the sofa shift a little from Tuddrussel's weight. Tuddrussel gnashed his teeth together in uncertainty; he had never actually seen Otto so distraught. He reached over to the grieving child and ruffled his auburn hair, feeling the tremors that Otto made.

"It's going to be alright." Tuddrussel tried to say without sounding like an idiot. He pulled his hand away and out of nervous habit he scratched his head.

"You don't even want me here." Otto said while sobbing.

Tuddrussel leaned back, slightly offended by that comment.

"Don't you be sayin' things you have no clue about." Tuddrussel said with authority. "What gave you the idea that I don't want you here?"

Otto lifted his head and rubbed the tears from his eyes. Looking directly at Otto Tuddrussel felt a cord strike somewhere from within, he felt sad for the boy. "First off, I know you picked up more than one kid before finding me." Otto glared at him with spite, hyperventilating as he tried to continue.

Tuddrussel froze, unsure if he should deny the truth. "You called me a brat to Larry, and earlier while you were working out I overheard you say worse." Otto bitterly added. Tuddrussel felt the burning glow of embarrassment rush to his face, Otto was good at blackmail.

"Oh. Ehh- listen kid; I didn't really mean those things.-

"Then why did you say it?" Otto interrupted.

Tuddrussel sighed, why this day turned out to be one big interrogation he'll never understand. "I don't know… I guess out of frustration." Tuddrussel said.

"Sometimes I forget who I'm even talking about, and while you can piss me off sometimes, that doesn't mean I'd want to dump you off somewhere." Tuddrussel's heart seemed to jolt and his face and chest burned from the anxiety he was feeling from talking to Otto. Otto turned away from Tuddrussel and put his legs down. He continued to cry, trying in vain to wipe the tears away. "Why do you have to act like such a jerk all the time?" Otto asked in that harsh childish way that seemed to cut like a knife because of how honest it was. Tuddrussel should have been angry, but he wasn't, he was feeling remorseful about it.

"I don't mean to be." Tuddrussel quietly said.

Otto looked at him through the corner of his eyes, he wasn't expecting an answer.

"I used to be different; I used to be kinda like you. I used to be a loser with nothing to do but read while stuck in a stuffy old farmhouse. But strange things can change a guy, like setting out for the real world on your own, finding love." Tuddrussel stopped when he got to that subject. "The point is that my dad taught me that sometimes you have to act tough to get the job done, or to get what you want. Maybe every now and then I step out of line from being tough to just being-well, a jerk. But I don't think about it, I just do it."

Otto sniffed again, "So pulling the plug on the AttackBot game was okay because you wanted to win?"

"No, it wasn't. I just got caught up in the moment I guess. I-I'm sorry." Tuddrussel stammered out. He hated to admit that Otto was better at video games than him; he would say he was sorry about ruining his high score but that was the limit on that. Otto yawned, wobbling slightly. Tuddrussel smirked, the kid was tired out big time. "Come on Otto, I think it's time for you to get some sleep." He stood up and stretched, even popping some bones in the process. Otto slid off the sofa and walked off without so much as saying another word to Tuddrussel.

He didn't think much of it though, after what had happened just now he must have worn himself out and didn't want to argue about going to bed like he normally did. Well he argued with Larry over the bed times anyway. Tuddrussel wondered where he was at the moment, he was going to get Otto's scrap book, but that was a while back. Curious, he went to check on him.


	3. Realizations

Larry left Tuddrussel to himself, his emotions steadily getting the better of him as he quickly walked away before he said something worse. As the door shut behind him, cutting off the availability of Tuddrussel to hear Larry let out his frustration. His delicate hands curled into fists, he wanted to strangle Tuddrussel for being so insensitive.

"That man!" Larry screeched. "I don't know why I even bother to try to reason with him." Larry walked with a swagger that gave him an air of regal authority, he continued to vent out-

"Those goggles of his must be cutting off blood circulation, if there's reason to believe he has a brain under that thick skull of his." Larry said mockingly.

"If you give Tuddrussel one inch of anything good, he'll gladly repay you with something callous, no matter who is involved. It's a wonder that Sheila got involved with him, it's amazing that I've kept standing by him for all these years, and it's utterly despairing that Otto has to be subjected to that too." Larry paused for a moment- that boy had his own problem.

"And Otto, if that child doesn't start turning a new attitude around and just let bygones be bygones soon I'll just blow a fuse!"

Larry sighed, turning to the left and entering the room he stopped to see where the book lay. Just as Tuddrussel had said the book was in the chair, but much to Larry's displeasure the book laid open and face down with a few pictures out of place and on the floor.

"Typical." Larry said dryly.

Tuddrussel had to be reckless with everything he put his hands on. He walked over to the chair and carefully picked up the book. He picked up the couple of photos that lay in the seat and then bent over and picked up the other three that had fallen to the floor. Larry thought for a brief moment to put the pictures back in their proper place, but quickly realized that Otto would rather do it himself. So he flipped the book open, finding the place where the pictures fell from so he could at least tuck them in safely so they couldn't fall out again. Larry admired them, as an artistic being he thought that the photographs were simplistically charming. But he had to admit, a lot of them were very gloomy for a child to keep.

He took notice of one of the photos in his hand that revealed an image of a much younger Otto, at least three or four years old. He had looked directly into the camera for this picture, smiling faintly while clinging onto the banister of a staircase with those glasses of his off balanced on his face just so slightly. He seemed to of had more freckles on his face when he was younger, but then again it looked like he was a lot healthier, not like when they first found him. Larry couldn't help but smile at it; Otto just looked so adorable with those pudgy cheeks and magnified green eyes looking up at the viewer with curiosity.

Larry after taking the time to look he briskly placed the pictures into a crease in the spine and shut the book. The robot somehow felt compelled to make sure everything was in order in the room; it would not be good to find that he missed a photo later on. He scanned the area, the chair was fine. He bent over to look under, nothing. He looked over close to the video game system and television- clear. He looked over at the sofa- it was fine. But, looking at the floor he noticed something white- another picture. Larry frowned, walking over to far side of the room to retrieve the thing. He saw that there was a shoe print on it; Tuddrussel's boot was recognizable from just a glance.

"Careless." Larry muttered.

He picked it off the floor. He noticed from close range how frayed it looked on the edges, like it had been cut and improperly handled for a good while. He turned it over, and what he saw confused him, looking at it until it sunk in. It didn't seem to be comprehensible. Larry grew still; he could have just shut off completely for all anybody knew.

The picture had obviously been cut from a bigger scene, but that of course wasn't important. The thing that was worth focusing on was the three figures that graced it. A man and a woman sat on a white love seat, both dressed very formal as if they were at a party. The man smirked at the camera, maybe the person holding it said something cheeky as they took it. His dark brown hair was short, but very unkempt. His horn rimmed glasses were balanced at the end of his nose. Next to him was this very petite looking woman. Her red hair was very wavy and stylishly bouncy for the day. She smiled big, holding in a laugh it looked like. Her silver rimmed glasses suited her; they weren't bulky like the man's. The two looked very lovely as a couple, and how they cradled a child between them tied them together. The child was still a baby, no older than one. He stood in between his parents with them holding on to his hands. His hair was thin; lightly ginger colored that was sticking up after it had been messed with. He was staring at the camera with a bemused look on his face, obviously not used to his surroundings.

From the first glance it was a completely normal picture.

But in reality the whole thing just seemed _off._

Larry didn't like this at all. It was absolutely crushing to look at the happiness that glowed from these people. He felt an overwhelming sense of guilt for looking at it; maybe earlier today he wouldn't have since Otto gave him permission to look at the contents, but now this just seemed wrong. In his eyes it could just as well have been something very ugly. Why did he have to look at it? Did Tuddrussel try to take it? If that was the case, for what purpose? All these questions reeled around in his mind; He had been staring at that photograph a little longer than he should have. He blinked, shaking his head to get back to reality.

"Oh Lawrence, get a hold of yourself." Larry told himself. He nervously placed the picture face down with the other pictures and quickly shut it. Larry shuttered, to think that Otto would have a picture of his parents, and never talked about them. He assumed that Otto had no recollection of them, let alone of proof of their existence. He turned around and headed out back to the corridor, wanting to get rid of the book and put it all behind him as quick and painless as possible. He held it close to his chest, protecting its contents in the dimly lit hallway. Opening the door he found that something in the air seemed still. He walked into the kitchen and he could see that Tuddrussel wasn't around. His eyes narrowed, wondering if something was going on. Walking slowly towards the table he started to hear voices, Tuddrussel's to be exact. He couldn't tell what he was saying, as he was speaking very soft. He stopped when he got close to be able to hear clearly without being seen.

"So pulling the plug on the AttackBot game was okay because you wanted to win?" Otto said. Larry could hear the trembling in his voice, was he crying? Silence was only interrupted by the child's sniffing and gasps for air.

"No, it wasn't. I just got caught up in the moment I guess. I-I'm sorry." Tuddrussel had spited out. Larry's eyes grew wide; Tuddrussel was trying to comfort him? The one who said he wasn't going bother with Otto is actually trying to make things better? What on earth is going on here? Larry placed his hand on his forehead, wondering what on earth happened to make him change, and what made Otto so upset this time.

"Come on Otto, I think it's time for you to get some sleep." Tuddrussel said. Larry lifted his head, this was unbelievable. He could hear movement from the next room, they must have been sitting down for a while, Larry thought. He could see Otto walking off, his head hung low. Tuddrussel walked towards the door way, looking up to see Larry. Larry wasn't sure what to say, he just stood there looking head on at the officer. Tuddrussel's heart took another jolt of panic, realizing that Larry had listened in on that conversation. He stood straight, walking towards him he cleared his throat to speak.

"How much of that did you hear?" Tuddrussel asked nervously.

Larry tightened his grip on the book, if Tuddrussel was going to talk his way out of this moment he had another thing coming.

"I just got here, I only heard you tell Otto to go to bed. That was very responsible of you." Tuddrussel rolled his eyes, as if that was something to be praised of. "Yeah well, the kid's had a long day and umm- I think the rest would do him some good." Tuddrussel said clumsily.

"What exactly happened just now?" Larry asked.

Tuddrussel sighed, leaning on the archway he said, "He was listening to us talk back there, it really set him off I guess."

Larry thought about it, and immediately became embarrassed. It seemed that he just blindly helped make this trap of theirs' get bigger. Hopefully Tuddrussel helped a little, Larry thought.

"You guess? He was crying, I saw him just now- he looked like an absolute _wreck_!" Larry said.

"Yeah, you could say that." Tuddrussel replied. Larry shook his head.

"Well, now that you've seem what trouble we've caused will you help me fix this?"

Tuddrussel crossed his arms and looked down at the floor, looking stubborn. "I guess." Tuddrussel mumbled under his breath. Larry had to smile a tad for what he had heard. "I'm so sorry Tuddrussel I couldn't hear you very clearly. What was it that you just said?" Tuddrussel eyed him with annoyance, how could he just say yes without Larry saying 'I told you so' by this point?

"Yes." Tuddrussel said. He didn't want to see the robot that looked ecstatic to get him to start acting like a decent human being for once. "Well good, you stay here and I'll be right back. I still have some business to take care of you know." Larry said. Larry proceeded to walk away from the room when Tuddrussel took a hold of his shoulder, Larry was not amused. "What are you doing?" Larry asked. Tuddrussel let go and stood away from the door frame to stand next to Larry. "How about we just meet in your room? I think Otto might walk in on us if were in here later." Tuddrussel said. Larry was slightly put off by this. "What makes you think he's going to bother us tonight? You'd think he'd be sound asleep in a few minutes, that child could probably sleep through a bomb detonation tonight." Larry replied. Tuddrussel shrugged, pointing over to the coffee table he noted, "He never ate. Just you wait, Otto will be sneaking off for a mid-night snack and he'll come." Larry looked at coffee table in the living room and saw the uneaten food.

"Ugh- _children_!" Larry said. What a waste!

"Okay them, meet me at my bedroom door in twenty minutes, first I'm going to give this back to Otto, _then_ I'm going to clean the mess that you two made!" Larry said harshly. He was mostly tired than really displeased, but he would have tell Otto not to leave his food out like that. He walked off again to get to Otto's room.

Tuddrussel stroked his chin as if to appear he was thinking about something.

"Wait, are you talking about what happened today? Or are you just talking about dinner?" Tuddrussel slyly asked. Larry sighed in exasperation.

"Both!" Larry snapped.

Tuddrussel chuckled to himself, he needed laugh somehow after today.

Otto was brushing his teeth before going to bed. He knew it was too early to go-only eight o'clock! But quite honestly he didn't really care. He felt sick, and emotionally drained from all that had happened. He wobbled on the bench that helped him reach the bathroom counter. He spit out the paste residue and dropped the toothbrush into its holder. He looked at himself in the mirror, seeing a very sorry looking boy. His glasses were off, and obviously couldn't see clearly. But Otto didn't have to wear them to see what was there. Through the blurry image Otto knew that his eyes were puffy, and that his nose was red from blowing snot out with toilet tissue for a few minutes. His face in general was flushed pink, and shiny from the tears. He tried so hard to not let it go near Tuddrussel or Larry, but in the end maybe it was better that way. His heart didn't feel so heavy now, and while still upset with Tuddrussel he certainly felt that he was on somewhat better terms with him. Otto turned the faucet back on, cupping cold water into his hands and dunking his face in it. It felt very refreshing on his hot skin; he did it two or three times before turning the faucet off. He reached for the towel and dried his face. Putting his glasses back on he saw how he looked now; not much better, and not much worse, he thought plainly. He stepped down from the bench and walked over to the closet. He went in with his normal day clothes and in an instant he came out with his flannel pajamas. He started to feel a little comfortable now, and went off to his room. Otto stepped out of the bathroom right as Larry was walking down the corridor towards him. Otto stood near the door, seeing he had his scrap book. He cringed at that thing; he wished that he had been smart enough to keep it away from plain sight like he had been. As soon as Larry gives it to him he was going to make it his business to hide it somewhere good.

"Oh Otto, there you are. Good to see that you're in a better mood." Larry said. He wanted to stay positive for him, and tried his best. Otto smiled back, but only for Larry's sake. "I thought I should give you this back." Larry said as he handed it to Otto. "Thanks." Otto said quietly. He held it close to him, awkwardly standing there with Larry towering over him. "I'm afraid there was an accident though, some of the pictures fell out." Otto raised his eyebrows in question.

"What happened?"

"Well I suppose it was when Tuddrussel threw it at the chair." Larry said. There was no use to fully lie, it was an accident and he knew there was no use to lie when he painfully knew now that Otto had heard the conversation between him and Tuddrussel.

Otto nodded. "Okay."

"But I didn't try to tamper with them; I just neatly put them together in the book." Larry said. "Thanks." Otto said. He was grateful for that. "You're not upset about it?" Larry asked.

Otto shrugged, "Well, as long as they're okay I'm not going to say anything about it. But from now on, could you just not bother my stuff anymore, please?"

"Of course, I'm so sorry I've even brought that out in the first place, it was none of my business and I will never bother with it again." Larry humbly apologized.

"It would be appreciated." Otto said, turning back away from the conversation. "Well, good night." Otto added.

He walked away from Larry, but Larry wasn't done with him just yet. "Hold it right there." Larry said. Otto stopped and looked back at him, what did he want now? "Before you go, let's get something straight around here; I've been trying to keep things between you and Tuddrussel easy going, but that hasn't been working out so well has it?"

Otto turned to face him, wondering what Larry was trying to talk about.

"You know it hasn't" Otto said.

"Well, I think it would be most helpful if you could start getting on better terms with him. He's trying with you- well in his own way he is. I'm aware that I'm not exactly on good terms with you ether and I'm trying to make it up to you. But you need to start by telling us what's troubling you."

Otto looked at him with spite; he was in no mood for this discussion. "There's nothing bothering me, Larry." Otto said, defending himself.

"Well if Tuddrussel's side of things is to be taken seriously, there is something bothering you. Now we won't discuss this tonight but sometime tomorrow I want you to start talking things out with us, got it?"

Otto huffed, "I'm trying to get better, I really am. But there's nothing to talk about!"

"Otto..." Larry's tone shifted to a very threatening one.

Knowing that Larry wasn't going to relent until some form of agreement was made, he answered quickly.

"Yes." Otto grumbled, looking down at the floor.

Larry sighed, worrying that he was making himself look like a nagging old fool.

"I'm sorry, but you have to realize that you leave as much of an impact on us as we do on you. The last thing I need around here is a cynical child, and that's what you've been acting like. You're too young to feel that way, whether you realize it or not you are the only thing that keeps things together around here, you were lost once today. I don't want to lose you for good." Larry stopped, alarmed to have admitted that.

He looked at Otto and saw how unnerved he looked. Oh dear, what have I started? Larry thought with uncertainty. Otto was slightly embarrassed by this attention that he was receiving; he started to back off slowly.

"Umm, can I go now?" Otto asked. Larry nodded. "Oh go on, go to bed. Hopefully things will be looking up for you tomorrow, hmm?" Otto didn't respond, just quickly high tailed it out of Larry's sight, leaving him to wonder if that helped his cause at all.

Otto ran into his room, glad to be rid of Larry and Tuddrussel for the night. Well he'd be free of Tuddrussel until he finally decides to go to sleep. Otto sometimes resented the fact that he shared a room with him, but at the time when he first moved in they didn't know where else to put Otto and it sort of became routine. Otto walked over to his bed and sat down on the edge, and then he quickly sat the book on his lap and opened it. While barely taking a glance at the pages he went through the book to find the pictures that Larry put back. He found them in the middle, where the photos fanned out from the book's spine, like a pop-up book. He plucked them gently and out of curiosity he looked at them.

Otto didn't like the first one he saw; it was a picture of him cleaning the gutters, he looked absolutely terrified from such a high place with two older boys shaking the ladder, laughing at his misfortune. He remembered that day; it was from when Sister Thornley caught him reading a biography on Peter the Great.

He flipped to the next one; this one wasn't much to look at, just a picture from when he and the other orphans went to wax the floors at the State Penitentiary.

Moving on to the other; this one was a little nicer with him watching tv with some other kids, enjoying cartoons on a Saturday morning before they had to start panhandling the neighborhoods near the orphanage.

He continued on to one of his own works, a photo of a ladybug on the window still. The next picture was the same picture Larry saw from when he was four. Otto wasn't interested in what was going on here as he particularly didn't like his pictures from when he was younger in general. He shrugged and casually flipped to the next picture.

Then time seemed to stop for a moment. Otto looked at the picture, unsure if he was actually seeing this. An old picture that he had for as long as he could remember; a photo that he kept special care for by hiding it, the one photo he had of his mom and dad. The sight of his parents caught him off guard and it seemed to fire up emotions that were already weighing him down. His breath grew still. Otto looked as though he saw a ghost, dropping the pictures back to the book. Feeling flustered again, he wondered how _that_ picture got out. Trembling he shuffled through the photos and found that one of them had a boot print on the back, he picked it up and looked at it from the front, there they were, smiling their heads off! Otto turned it back to look at the boot print, obviously Tuddrussel's.

But why was… oh. The whole business with him earlier started to come together. That's why Tuddrussel panicked, he was being a snoop! Otto thought to himself. He stopped looking at it to flip the pages of the book all the way to the back where there was one particular object that stood out, an envelope. Otto had tried in vain to keep this picture close while never wanting to look at it by placing it in that. He noticed that the tape he had used to hold the envelope shut had dried out long ago, Giving him the realization that if Tuddrussel or Larry were to of found it they could of easily seen it. Panic arose, did they really see it? With a shoe print for evidence, he imagined that Tuddrussel had pulled it out, looked, and clumsily dropped it before he came by. And with Larry, he must have looked, what with him being the one who had put the photos back in there. Otto slid the picture in its proper place and shut the book roughly. Bending down he shoved it under the bed. He'd deal with it later.

Otto felt his stomach rumble, he held his torso as if that would help soothe the neglected need for food. He whimpered, getting on the bed and lying face down on his belly and placing his pillow over his head. Otto's revelation that Larry and Tuddrussel had looked was shattering, how they could just intrude on something so personal, something that even he didn't like to think about was awful. Otto had begun to cry again, feeling that he had no one to blame but himself. He should have just ripped the stupid thing out of Larry's hands, he wanted to, but at the time was just too polite to do it. If he had done that, he would have never gotten angry at Tuddrussel, and the man would have never known about his insulting nickname, and they would never have fought. He wished that he could go back and fix this, but he mournfully knew that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. A memory from earlier reared its head, and that made him feel worse about himself.

"_You worthless piece of trash, you thought you could just walk out of here and not be caught again? For a kid that apparently knows everything you sure are stupid. But I suppose that's to be expected; your parents were just too stupid to live too." _

Otto shook his head in protest, "What does she know? Just an old witch."


	4. Forgive and Forget Part 1

Tuddrussel walked down the corridors to Larry's room. He didn't really want to go, but if he wanted to talk about the things that had been going on, he wanted it done privately. Tuddrussel was perfectly able to talk to Larry about their situation over Otto; they had done it before, when he first appeared into their lives.

"_I don't want him to think he can just do what he pleases, he's only here for a trial, and honestly he's already starting to wear thin on my patience."_

The memory of Larry's harsh tone of voice echoed through Tuddrussel's mind. It was almost two years ago when that happened, he thought. A lot of things had changed since then, there was no doubt about that. He found it really funny how Larry was so uptight about Otto at first, considering him as only a liability and not an asset. It almost seemed unreal that Larry would be so different now, and with himself, he realized that his attitude had changed too. He did care for Otto, even if didn't think about it much or showed it at the best of times. But he tried to show that by just talking to Larry about it all, and that was good enough for him.

Tuddrussel went to Larry's door and knocked on it. "Come in." Larry called. Tuddrussel sighed, putting his best foot forward he pressed the button to Larry's door and went in. Tuddrussel cringed at the sight of the décor, purple and pink dominated the area with a vengeance. Practically having forgotten how vivid Larry liked his things he almost regretted asking to talk in here, but he couldn't back out of it now.

"Well, don't just stand there, sit down." Larry said. He had just put on a rosy pink robe, tightening the sash uneasily as Tuddrussel gawked. Tuddrussel mumbled under his breath as he took a seat from the one chair that didn't have lace or other frills on it and sat down. "So, how was he?" Tuddrussel asked.

Larry turned away from him, walking to the door to type in the lock code.

"Hmm- well, he's calmed down from what had happened, and other than being a little moody I think he's okay for now." Tuddrussel slouched in the chair. Larry typed in the code quickly and turned back around to have a seat on the fainting couch so he could see Tuddrussel directly across from him.

"So, where do we begin?" Larry asked. An uncomfortable silence followed with the grandfather clock's ticking being the only audible sound in the room. It was irritating to Larry. Tuddrussel shifted his eyes away from Larry's soft blue glare and tried to focus on the tiles, the Persian rugs, and the sewing basket- anything but the robot. Larry stared at him, waiting for some response. "Well?" Larry asked. Tuddrussel narrowed his eyes back to Larry's gaze.

Tuddrussel rested his head on his knuckle and asked plainly, "Larry, what are we doing here?"

Larry shifted in his seat, unnerved by Tuddrussel he scoffed, "What do you think? You didn't want to have this conversation in the kitchen"-

"No, I mean what are we tryin' to pull? This looks stupid."

"Stupid? Now that's a laugh!"

"Larry . . . "

"I'm sorry. But I don't see how trying to hatch an intervention on a child could be considered anything of the sort." Silence fell on them once again. Seconds seemed like minutes before Tuddrussel managed to blurt something out.

"You know, when we first agreed to keep him, we said it wouldn't get weird." Tuddrussel said.

"Excuse me?"

"Remember? After we brought him back, and let him stay here, we talked about how things weren't going to get weird. We weren't going to get attached or anything. He was just here to tell us how to do our job. Well ya' know, Larry, things have gotten weird. I mean, look at us! We're actually talking about him, as if we cared about him like he was important!"

"Well he is!" Larry replied.

"I know! That's what I'm gettin' at!" Tuddrussel shouted. Larry sat straight up, looking absolutely confused. Tuddrussel frowned, quietly adding, " Did you think you'd actually care about the little pipsqueak when he came?"

Larry was unsure of how to answer that. "Well, I-I suppose not." He guiltily admitted. "He was such a handful, running about and touching everything, always asking questions, talking incessantly . . . he just sort of grew on me I guess." Larry turned away, embarrassed. "And what about you? You can't possibly say that he hasn't had the same effect on you too."

"Yeah, you could say that I'm fond of the kid." Tuddrussel admitted, lifting his head up and smiled. "He's got a lot of nerve, ya' know? " Frowning again, he abruptly stood up and walked away from Larry and went over to the window, looking at the vastness that was outer space. Larry was perplexed about the strange behavior that Tuddrussel has shown. He got up and walked over to Tuddrussel and nervously placed a hand on his shoulder. "So do you."

"Yeah, he gets it from me!" Tuddrussel said, humoring himself.

"Tsk- don't flatter yourself." Larry replied severely.

Tuddrussel placed his hand on Larry's, looking uneasily away from him and concentrated on the rather dull scenery from outside the window. "Like I said, things have gotten weird." Moving Larry's hand off he turned to look at him, whose worried face seemed glued to Tuddrussel's every movement. Tuddrussel held Larry's hand and sighed. "We've had him for almost two years now, and look what's happened to us. It's kinda crazy, don't cha think?"

Larry let go of Tuddrussel's hand and drew the curtain to the window. "I agree that it's a bit surreal now that you mention it. And maybe we have treated Otto far different from we had planned." Larry said calmly. "But it's for the best, I think."

"Sure, right. For the best." Tuddrussel stumbled in agreement.

Larry, who knew it would be unwise, felt compelled to ask Tuddrussel about what had happened between him and Otto before.

"Tuddrussel." Larry said. Tuddrussel looked down at him as he spoke his name.

"I just want to know, about earlier, what made you change your mind about him?" Larry asked. Tuddrussel turned away, quietly mumbling something that was unintelligible. Larry stepped back from him, fearful that Tuddrussel would yell at him. Tuddrussel rolled his eyes, not at all happy with Larry's question.

"I don't know. I really don't. I guess when we found him again and he just started saying sorry about this and that, and making promises about being good and letting me do whatever, it really made me feel for him. But when he saw what was going on, and how bent out of shape he got over it I thought he was just being really jealous over nothin' and dramatic, to the point I was thinking about just dumping him back at the orphanage for another hour, it seemed to work for a little while before." Tuddrussel sheepishly admitted with a rather bad taste in his mouth. Larry's irked expression told Tuddrussel what he thought about that. He cringed as Larry commented with sarcasm, "Oh, well I'm sure that would have gone over well!" Tuddrussel didn't defend, only added on with-

"Yeah, not real smart. I even said a few things about that aloud later, while just blowing off some steam in the gym. I didn't know Otto was around to hear and he caught some of that." Larry covered his face with his hand, he could feel a migraine kicking in, he wished that he hadn't asked. "Great, just great." Larry said.

"I'm not exactly proud of that if you're wanting me to admit it." Tuddrussel stammered out. " But anyway, when he finally just broke and let me have it, it made me feel pretty lousy. And the rest is history I guess." Tuddrussel turned back to look at Larry to ask, "You didn't tell him about those other orphans, did you?"

"No, I thought we were going to keep that quiet." Larry said.

"Well the cat's out of the bag, when I talked to him he got on to me about it." Tuddrussel said with resentment. "Must of been that Columbus guy, damn explorers" Tuddrussel trailed off into silence.

"Hmm- well, hasn't this been a fine day." Larry said dryly "I suppose were just going to have to give him the facts whether or not he needs to know them then."

"I guess so." Tuddrussel said as he backed away from Larry, very much tired he went back to the chair hoping try to get this over with soon.

"Tuddrussel, there's something I need to ask." Larry said ominously. He crossed his arms, walking slowly back to Tuddrussel.

"About what?" Tuddrussel asked. Larry shot a concerned look at Tuddrussel, making him sink into the chair in fear.

Larry sat down on the fainting couch. "This is difficult to explain, and I hardly understand any of this. In fact, I feel that I need to ask you a few questions about earlier tonight, you don't mind?"

Tuddrussel shrugged, he thought there was nothing to hide by now. "Shoot."

Larry was pleased, for now. "I know I've asked this before, but I want you to be more concise about it. What were you doing with Otto's scrap book earlier?"

Tuddrussel raised an eyebrow. "Nothin'. I was just looking at it. You were why shouldn't I? You were making a big deal about it and I was just curious."

Larry fidgeted with his fingers, making soft clinging sounds that seemed loud to Tuddrussel's ears within the still silence. "Will you knock that off?" Tuddrussel grumbled. Larry immediately stopped to ask another question.

"You weren't planning to do anything to it?"

"Nah., like I said, I was curious and wanted to look." Larry nodded in understanding.

"Okay. Did you happen to take anything out?" Larry asked cautiously.

"No." Tuddrussel answered affirmatively. He eyed the robot with suspicion now, wondering why that mattered.

"Why do you ask?"

Larry was beginning to grow anxious of this conversation, he didn't want to continue any further but he had gone too far to stop now. "Well when I went to get the album there were several pictures that had fallen out on the chair and surrounding floor, but there was also this one lone photo across the room." Larry paused, watching Tuddrussel as he grew more suspicious of Larry, his eye brows furrowed in question as to where the conversation was leading. "It had looked like it been stepped on, and I was wondering if you had looked at it." Larry tried to off handedly mention it, seeing if Tuddrussel was guilty of taking the picture out. Tuddrussel had an idea of Larry was talking about now, but very confused to why that picture mattered for discussion. "Oh, that? I was flipping through the book and it fell out, I tried to pick it up but Otto was coming and so I just stepped on it." Tuddrussel said nonchalantly.

"So you didn't look at it?" Larry asked.

"No, I didn't." Tuddrussel replied. "Lar, what are you gettin' at?"

Larry grew still, if he were human he'd look absolutely pale with fear.

"It was a picture of his parents." Larry said quietly. Tuddrussel's eyes widened.

"What?" Tuddrussel managed to say.

Larry stood up and began to walk around the room. He couldn't bare to sit still any longer. "I know I shouldn't feel this way, I mean it was in there. If Otto didn't want anyone to see it, he wouldn't have put it there, right? But after all this fuss with him I feel so terrible about it. And the fact that he's _never _talked about them, it just came as such as a big shock. I just wanted to know if you saw it."

"I had no idea." Tuddrussel said.

Relieved to know that Tuddrussel hadn't done anything wrong, Larry's gears from within slowed down as he relaxed a bit. "Well that's a load off my mind. I was afraid you were going to do something horrible with it!" Larry exclaimed. Having blurted this out, Larry immediately realized how bad that sounded and regretted it. Tuddrussel glared at Larry. "You are so lucky that I don't have the energy to kick your metal butt right now, you really thought I'd do something like that to Otto?"

"Excuse my rudeness, but can you blame me for thinking that? I hope Otto doesn't think the same thing for your sake, and if he does ask you just say that you don't have any idea about what he's talking about, got it?"

Tuddrussel sighed, leaning back and looked up at the ceiling he said, "Un freakin' believable, well I'll tell him I didn't see it, because it's true, but what about you? You just gonna say that you didn't ether?"

"I suppose I'll have to won't I?" Larry said. Tuddrussel yawned, looking up at the clock he tried to excuse himself from this conversation that clearly had gone South.

"Are we close to ending this? All this talk is getting old."

"Oh shut it, Tuddrussel." Larry snapped at him. Tuddrussel popped his knuckles, saying, "Hey, no offense, I'm just getting tired and I've been wondering about all this, do you really think that we're helping Otto instead of just making it worse?"

"Well, we've got to try." Larry said. "Buck, he's a child that obviously has needs for a family that's not going to disappear on him, I think we could at least manage to give him reason to believe that we can provide him that."

"Yeah, sense his last crack at one didn't turn out so well."

"You leave them out of this. Really Tuddrussel, have some respect." Larry said, scowling. He waved his hand in a motion as if to say "forget it" and continued on. "Well what's done is done; I think it would be best to retire for the night, I think we've embarrassed ourselves quite enough for one day."

Even Larry was starting to feel overheated from all of this, very much tired he sought to end the conversation very soon for both his and Tuddrussel's sake.

"I suppose we can both agree to never talk about this meeting, right?" Larry said with a twinge of anxiety. Tuddrussel nodded. "Right."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX X

Otto fumbled around in the drawer that Larry kept the adhesives in for all occasions. He found the roll of invisible scotch tape, which was good enough, and honestly the least messy of his options.

He had originally thought about just fixing his scrap book at a later time, but after calming himself down again and being hungry he decided to just get a bunch of chocolate chip cookies from the kitchen. While hap hazardly getting the package down from the pantry he considered the prospect of getting the job done and just worry about hiding the book tomorrow. So there he was in the art room rummaging through glue and tape hoping he wouldn't get caught. He didn't know where Tuddrussel and Larry were, and he liked it that way for the time being. He put the tape in his pocket and grabbed the plastic bag of cookies that he left on the easel and quickly headed back to his room. He went in half expecting Tuddrussel to be in the room, but he still hadn't come back. Relieved, Otto dragged the book out from under the bed and sat down on the edge crossed legged with the book laying secure between his legs. Opening the book he set to work on it while grabbing a cookie to eat. Flipping through it casually, he planned on taking his time.

-END OF PART 1 OF CHAPTER 4-


	5. Forgive and Forget Part 2

"Yeah, yeah, I hear ya'" Tuddrussel replied quickly, interrupting Larry's train of thought.

Larry groaned as he unlocked the door. "Honestly, Tuddrussel, could you just listen and wait till I'm finished? Like I was saying, try your best not to excite the child, we need to be a comfort to him, show that he can trust us."

Tuddrussel pressed the door open quicker than Larry could and started to walk out the door. "Okay, Larry. Good Night." Tuddrussel said in an exasperated tone.

Larry watched him walk out the door and out into the darkly lit corridor briefly as the door shut behind the man. "Good Night." Larry said, barely recognizing that Buck was not there to hear.

Tuddrussel opened the bedroom door with the surprise that the lights were still on; he walked in and looked over to the other side of the room to be even more surprised that Otto was still up. Otto stopped working on his album to look at the one who had entered. Tuddrussel had the unpleasant feeling that Otto was very ticked off at him. He was correct, as Otto's stare gave away that he still suspected Tuddrussel for being up to no good.

Otto said nothing, just turned his eyes back to the album and went back to work. Bewildered, Tuddrussel sat down on his bed looking at Otto. With precision, Otto cut the tape with care and placed the strip on the edge of the photo, pressing it down to insure its safety. Tuddrussel hated the cold silence that was between them, feeling that he should say something to lighten the mood somewhat by talking casually.

"You have any idea how late it is, kid?" Tuddrussel asked meekly. Otto shook his head. Biting his own tongue, Tuddrussel kept still. He listened to the sound of tape being ripped and pressed onto paper, Otto was extraordinarily quiet other than that.

Tuddrussel attempted to try again with him.

"Did I break that or what?" Tuddrussel asked.

Without stopping his work to look at Tuddrussel, Otto softly spoke, "No, the tape and glue just wore off on some of them, I'm just making it better."

"But why are you messin' with it now?"

Otto shrugged, replying "I guess it's out of an old habit, if I was having a really bad day at the orphanage, I'd mess with it. It helped me feel better."

Tuddrussel was stumped at this kid, forgetting to keep his own thoughts he said,

"That's just weird."

Otto put the tape down and turned to glare back at Tuddrussel.

"I didn't ask what you thought about it." Otto said sharply.

Tuddrussel cocked an eyebrow, Otto was about to get into trouble if he was going to keep that up.

"Watch your mouth, kid. I wouldn't have dared talk to my dad the way you are." Tuddrussel said with an authoritative tone that even he felt uncomfortable using with Otto-

Otto narrowed his eyes, looking at Buck coldly.

"But you're not mine." Otto said.

Tuddrussel felt like shutting down at that, "No, I guess I'm not." Tuddrussel replied bitterly.

Otto held his breath, shocked at what he had said he hid his remorse he turned quickly around to face his book.

"I'm sorry." Otto quickly said.

Tuddrussel waved it off. "Forget it, kid."

Otto fumbled through the book, finding a picture that had left its place on the page. A picture of him at about five or six sitting in the corner, being punished for something it looked like, he didn't care to try to remember. But the anxiety of seeing another one of his pictures out of place made him want to question Tuddrussel about it. Huffing out a breath of irritation he boldly looked back at Tuddrussel

"Why were you looking through this? I told you when Larry found it I didn't want him to look." Otto chided.

Tuddrussel was about to take off his boots when he heard that, he rolled his head back to Otto to say,

"Hey, here's a crazy thought, now stay with me on this- When Larry found that stupid book of yours didn't you ever think to just take it from him?" Tuddrussel said sarcastically.

Otto rolled his eyes at him and replied "Yes. I wanted to, but I didn't okay?".

"Then can't you just get over it and move on?" Tuddrussel snapped.

Otto flinched at Tuddrussel's harsh voice, looking away from him he didn't see that Tuddrussel regretted being harsh with him. Tuddrussel scratched his head in thought. This wasn't getting him anywhere. "I'm sorry for all this, kid. I know you're sore at me, and I can take a hint and stay out of your way for a while, maybe even longer."

Otto sighed, turning his head to listen, but he didn't want to look at Tuddrussel, who was eyeing the child with scrutiny, trying to figure him out.

Tuddrussel gnashed his teeth together, fearfully trying to say something without screwing up.

"Look, is there something you're not tellin' me or Larry?" Tuddrussel paused, a little too long before adding-

"He's awfully worried about you, and come to think of it, I kinda am too."

Otto slumped where he sat, shutting the album and placing it on the night stand.

"You don't have to talk." Tuddrussel offered. "But it would be nice if you would, like you usually do." Otto looked at him with the same hurt expression like from before in the living room.

"I just wish bad things didn't happen to me." Otto said.

Tuddrussel let out a bitter laugh, replying, "Yeah, well don't we all? Sorry kid, but that's just life, and we have to put up with a lot of crap in it. "

"But maybe we could prevent it, if we tried." Otto offered.

"_Ehh, maybe_." Tuddrussel replied sarcastically.

"I know it's not going to happen, I know better than that Tuddrussel, but I just wish that

today just hadn't happened at all."

"You and me both."

Without missing a beat Otto slid off his bed and went over to Tuddrussel.

"Okay, We'll talk." Otto said as he hopped on Tuddrussel's bed and sat down next to him.

"You and Larry were talking about me just now, weren't you?" Otto asked.

Tuddrussel froze. "Uhh . . . no." He should have never mentioned Larry, he could have kicked himself for letting himself give that even slight hint away.

Otto wasn't impressed, crossing his legs and leaning a little forward closer to Tuddrussel he responded with, "I'll take that as a yes."

"Gee kid, can't this wait til' morning? Can't we just talk about something else?"

"Not until I know something." Otto said, pausing to carefully add-

" Just give me ONE answer to something, it's really important to me to know, and if you give me this I'll lay off for the rest of the night, maybe even for the rest of my life. I'll never talk about it ever again, but give me an answer."

Tuddrussel growled under his breath with frustration. He leaned back to the wall and crossed his arms. "What is it?"

Otto thought about what he wanted to ask, opening his mouth to speak only to close it for being uncertain. But then he had it, he piped up- "If, by chance you were going through my scrapbook . . . was there anything that you messed with? Did you take a picture out?"

"Nope." Tuddrussel said. Frowning, the man's mind echoed back to what Larry had talked about, he was unfortunately right. He noticed how Otto looked disappointed in his answer; he couldn't take that. But what was he to do? He was conflicted about all this and it was making him sick; sighing he tried again by telling the truth- without admitting too much.

"But . . . _If _I did, it was an accident. I know I might have messed one or two up on accident but they just fell out and I wasn't thinking, I didn't see a damn thing before you came by, honest. Larry on the other hand . . . well that's something you're going to have to take up with him . . . even if he's been swearing up and down that he's not going talk about it."

Otto bit his lip for a moment. He was trying to think carefully of what to say next.

"But you know exactly what I'm talking about, right?"

Tuddrussel promised he wouldn't talk about what Larry saw, but he also promised to tell Otto he hadn't seen it. And by God, he was going to try to keep both intact. "Yes . . . but don't know much about it except that it gave Larry a good scare. And look, don't go getting angry at Larry over this, okay? He doesn't need that crap from you and he's not going to bother you about it." Tuddrussel said, thinking that he should at least defend Larry from what he presumed would have been Otto's wrath.

"Shucks, Otto, you want to just put this whole mess past ya?"

Tuddrussel put his hand on Otto's shoulder, as a way of trying to comfort him.

"I want to." Otto said.

"Then what's stoppin' ya?" Tuddrussel asked.

Otto shook his head. "I can't tell."

"Why?"

"I just can't say it. I can't."

"Come on kid, what's it gonna take?"

With that, Tuddrussel patted Otto's back. Maybe a little too hard, he didn't know. But nevertheless, he got a reaction out of Otto that he didn't expect.

Otto yelped, grabbing Tuddrussel's hand and shoving it away. "Hey, what gives?" Tuddrussel asked, slightly hurt. Otto looked deeply afraid, rubbing his left shoulder as if the pat was incredibly painful. "What's wrong?"

Otto stood up from the bed and backed away from him. "There is something . . . " Otto mumbled.

"There's something that I haven't told you guys about, but it's just, well, not something I wanted to ever let you guys find out about because I know you'd be upset and . . . " Otto backed off for a moment, noticing that he was shaking, and that the creeping sensation of embarrassment rose to his face.

"I didn't want to show you this, it's so embarrassing . . . But I don't think I can hide it from you anymore, I'm so tired of trying to pretend."

Still shaking, Otto slowly turned around to face the wall. Tuddrussel opened his mouth to speak again but caught his breath when he saw Otto reach for the back of his night shirt.

Otto closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. He then quickly lifted up his shirt. Tuddrussel's jaw dropped.

The room grew still, let alone Otto's manic breathing, you could hear a pin drop. He opened his eyes to the steel floor, waiting for a reaction. What was there was hard to take in. Purple and blue streaks and blotches covered the area in patches on the boy's back, along his rib cage; immediately things all became clear.

"Jesus Christ, What happened to you?!" Tuddrussel frantically asked. A chill climbed up his spine, making him react by getting off the bed and walking over to Otto.

Otto's face burned with humiliation, he could almost feel Buck's eyes glaring at his skin.

"I disobeyed . . . I wouldn't come, so she got angry."Otto meekly answered.

Otto's mind raced back to 2002, when he got back to that 'home'. The other kids went off the bus first, leaving Otto to quiver in the back while Sister Thornley mincingly took out that whip. She commanded him to come, he shook his head, being bold enough to defy her was going to lead to an even uglier consequence, but he didn't want what was going to inevitably happen by a long shot.

_"Please Sister, I'm sorry!" Otto whimpered. The nun glared, coming toward him. _

_"Don't give me that crap. You come here before I drag you out!" Sister Thornley sneered. _

Otto put his shirt down and turned back around to face him again. "Well?" Otto threw his hands up in defeat. "You get it now?"

"Kid, I don't know what was going on at that orphanage of yours, but all I know is that woman is going to get her ass handed to her before the night is over." Tuddrussel growled.

"Why didn't you say something before?"

Otto stood there looking like he was about to be scolded. Tuddrussel cringed at almost yelling at Otto. He balled his hands into fists, furious at himself he couldn't believe he let this happen.

"I didn't know what to do . . . " Otto said gravely.

Tuddrussel looked back at Otto, feeling a sense of relief in knowing that at least he was obviously not dying anytime soon, he sat down on the edge of the bed and tried to think about this whole mess.

Tuddrussel scratched his head in thought; feeling like a total jackass from what had been said and done today, and like Otto was talking about he was wishing that he could take it back. But while he felt sorry for himself and Otto, he was inconceivably pissed at that nun . . . how could you do that to a little kid? He thought with severity.

"Come over here." Tuddrussel said, reaching a hand out to Otto.

Otto did reluctantly. Tuddrussel motioned Otto to get back on the bed and once he did Tuddrussel awkwardly, but meant well all the same, hugged the child. Otto, despite a partial wanting to not be hugged, let himself be embraced and held tightly onto Tuddrussel's neck, returning the gesture of silent forgiveness he almost wanted to never let go from what now seemed like a safe place. Tuddrussel was the one to embrace him gently; He lightly rubbed his back, listening to the soft breathing that Otto made, he feared hurting him again.

"We'll get ya' fixed up, you should of said something, it makes us all look stupid ya know?" Tuddrussel said.

Otto hiccuped, letting out another tear he wiped it away as fast as it came. "I'm sorry."

Tuddrussel let a smile appear, he really couldn't stay mad at him if he really tried. But he frowned just as quick, realizing that he'd have to make Otto go to Larry to get fixed up, he did have the medicine for bruising and blood clots and the like after all.

"You know one of us is going to have to tell Larry, right?" Tuddrussel said.

"I can't." Otto muffled out. "And I don't want you to ether."

"Well, I will if I have to."Tuddrussel said firmly.

"No, no please!" Otto pulled himself away from Tuddrussel.

"Please, Buck, don't do that!" Otto begged.

"Hush it, Otto. We're going and that's that."

End of part 2


	6. Coming Into Light

As Larry recharged in bed he tried to relax, with the television onto his trashy soap operas he tried to watch with interest. Was it working? Not really, in fact he wasn't at all that interested in Clara St. Clare's wicked remarks toward Constance Van Garret. But he felt too restless to sleep and continued on.

_Knock knock knock_

Larry looked over at the door, unsure if he heard that knocking. He almost wished he had imagined it. He picked up the remote and turned the volume down and waited.

_Knock knock knock_

"Well there goes my evening." Larry said, pulling the charger out from is socket.

Tuddrussel began to pound on the door in an anxious effort for Larry to hear him. The door opened abruptly with Larry peering out; he looked at Tuddrussel's face and saw how frightened he was.

"Oh, why Tuddrussel…" Larry paused as he looked down and caught a glimpse of Otto standing next to him looking even more frightened.

"What's wrong?" Larry asked, looking back to Tuddrussel.

"We've got to talk, " Tuddrussel said, pointing down at Otto.

Otto's eyes widened; gasping at the sudden touch of his back as Tuddrussel pushed him forward.

"Right now." Tuddrussel added in a hurry as he pushed Otto into the room.

"Come on now, tell him." Tuddrussel said. Otto shot him an irritated look.

Larry, concerned, went over to Otto, "What's going on here? Otto?"

Looking up at Larry, the boy trembled.

"I didn't want this to happen, please let me go back to bed Tuddrussel..." Otto pleaded.

Tuddrussel didn't want to see Otto beg, not like this, but it was for the boy's own good that he do this.

"Just show him what _she _did to you." Tuddrussel said.

Otto felt so small, and trapped in the room with nowhere to hide he wanted to shrink down to be so tiny that he'd disappear all together.

"Larry..." Otto began. "I need some help." Larry bent down next to Otto. "What is it?" Larry asked with deep concern. "I'm hurting, a lot." Otto stammered out.

Larry hesitated to ask, "Why is that?"

Otto turned away from Larry's soft blue eyes that seemed to stare right through him.

"Back there at the orphanage, Sister Thornley...

Otto paused, looking at Tuddrussel for mercy, he didn't want to tell Larry, and he was afraid Buck would do it all for him.

"She, oh…" Otto's voice faded. He couldn't say it. With Tuddrussel it seemed so much simpler to tell, but then again, maybe he wanted Tuddrussel to understand first and foremost.

But Larry was just so smothering at the worst of times; and quick to make critical remarks that Otto certainly didn't want to be called out with, and that talk he had with Larry before made him _really_ not want to talk about it for that reason. Courage wanted to fail him, But Otto got himself calm by taking a deep breath and trying to not think about what laid ahead.

Biting his lip, he knew there was only one way to do this. Otto turned around like before and showed him.

Larry looked at the wicked handy work, and quickly gasped in horror. Recoiling from the sight he abruptly grabbed Tuddrussel's arm for balance he sputtered out,

"Did- did that woman do that!?"

"Uhh huh" Otto mumbled. He put his shirt down again and looked at the grief stricken faces of his friends. Larry jerked his head, eyeing Tuddrussel with disgust. "How could this of happened?" Larry asked. Tuddrussel forlornly replied,

" Don't look at me, he's got all the answers."

Larry looked back at Otto with the mind to ask a billion questions about his current condition, and more furiously, demand why in the world this wasn't called upon earlier. But before he dared say anything he just watched him with attentiveness. Otto didn't want to look at him, this was embarrassing and he just wanted to go to his room. Larry felt himself growing sympathy from looking at the boy, who clearly was humiliated at being dragged out here and having to show what had been done to him while they were gone. No, he'd better try to handle this as calmly for the child as possible.

"Come with me, Otto." Larry said, gesturing for him to come over to his side.

In no hurry to join Otto came towards him.

"Tuddrussel, you can stay here if you'd like or go to bed, we won't be long." Larry said.

Tuddrussel opened his mouth to protest, but Larry added quickly with a softer tone-

"This is very upsetting for us all, I know, but Otto needs some privacy, don't you think? I'll call you back, just get some rest." Otto walked with Larry out the door, watching Tuddrussel sit down and bury his face in his hands until the door shut behind him.

Otto assumed that he and Larry were going to the medical room, and he was correct.

"I'm sorry." Otto said.

Larry looked down at Otto with a smile, patting him on the head he reassured the child, "Now, now, lets just get you fixed up and not another word about being sorry, it's not your fault." Otto shivered at that last part, he felt that it was most certainly his fault for getting beaten the way he did.

In the white, very sterile room where Larry had often fixed Tuddrussel's and Otto's injuries before, Larry walked to the medical room quickly, trying very hard to not think about the situation he found himself in. But he did think about Tuddrussel's actions in this, he must thank him later, he noted. How frightened he looked, poor thing, having to deal with the tenacious child that has seemed to open up before him must have been an ordeal in itself. Otto trailed in behind him, without saying a word he got himself up on the examining table without Larry having to tell him.

Opening the medicine cabinet Larry tried to see what could be used to treat the boy. He picked up a bottle that he often used to treat bruises and cuts, and according to humans it stung like hell. It had an applicable brush attached to the cap to just keep the liquid from hitting unwanted areas of the skin. Otto eyed the medicine with automatic hate. It was awful stuff. Otto pulled his shirt off and tried to keep the sleeves on to keep warm in the drafty room, he began to shiver and held himself into a fetal position.

Larry turned to the table, glad that Otto was cooperating with him. Rolling his eyes, he thought about how it seems to take _hours _to get Tuddrussel to do the simplest things in here.

"Oh, good boy, I see you want to get this over with as soon as possible?"

"Well I wouldn't call this a party." Otto said sarcastically.

Larry, not amused by Otto's sarcasm choose to be silent for a moment to unscrew the cap and carefully apply the liquid evenly on the brush.

"Well, I don't know what's gotten into your head to not want help in the first place, looks here that she made sure you wouldn't be able to lay on your back for a month." Larry replied. He made the first mark, blotting his skin with the brush.

Otto felt the cold sensation of the liquid hit his skin, the furious stinging came slowly, he hissed at the feeling. Trying to not whine at it, he took deep breaths slowly, closing his eyes he tried to concentrate on his own thoughts other than the pain. Larry noticed Otto's way of controlling himself, and always felt this was a very admirable trait for Otto's character, in contrast to Tuddrussel's over blown reactions to the smallest of injuries, Otto seemed to never complain, or dare cry out and often wished Tuddrussel would be just as quiet and wouldn't flinch. After a few minutes of working on Otto, Larry could see that the medicine was working. Pleased, he spoke,

"There now, not much longer. Luckily the skin didn't break, or else this job would be much more difficult."

"Okay." Otto mumbled. Larry had been working from the top of his shoulders and down ward, and looking at a particularly awful bash in his rib cage Larry growled in hate at this abuse.

"I can't believe this, I'm trying hard not rant at you but really this is just despicable, just obscene. Who does this Sister Thornley think she is going around-"

"It's okay." Otto interrupted, grimacing at the thought of his bruises. "She could've done worse."

Larry paused, displeased to have heard that.

"Otto, don't tell me that. Don't you even dare try to tell me that._ She could have killed you!_ That woman. - I'd wring her neck if I had the chance!" Larry said.

Otto cringed as the liquid hit his skin, not expecting it to hit his rib cage.

He cried out, "_Ach-_ I'm not saying that, I hate her for it believe me! All I'm saying is that she let me off easy, because she has done worse, and you shouldn't feel bad about it. And ya' know I get hurt and kicked around all the time when I'm on missions with you guys anyway, don't freak out. "

"Stop that nonsense right there," Larry scolded.

"What you do while with us is just part of the job as a Time Cop. As much as I hate to say it, when you get hurt you have to follow by example and fight back. Or at least often in your case _you _use your head to get out of a bad situation. But what she did was taking advantage of a vulnerable situation knowing that you were powerless and no one could possibly help."

"You got that right." Otto said with exasperation.

Larry made a brief humph of dissatisfaction and dropped the conversation there to continue working. This left Otto to think carefully about what had been said; a useful tactic of trying to ignore the fact that his skin felt like it was burning, other than letting out a small whimper every little while, Larry couldn't tell how much this medicine bothered him.

In to keeping things lighter, Larry asked with some genuine concern- "How are you holding up?"

"I'm okay, but how much longer?" Otto replied.

"Don't you fret, you're doing very well and I'm almost done."

Larry finished the job swiftly enough and before Otto realized it the robot finished and snapped the top back on the bottle.

"There, it should heal fully by noon tomorrow, now come on, hop off the table."

Otto put his shirt back on carefully and got himself down to the floor. He watched Larry as he walked to the other side of the room. "Umm, Larry?"

"Yes?" Larry replied as he put the medicine back into the cabinet.

Otto stepped towards Larry with his hands clasped together in thought. "Thank you, for everything." Larry smiled; at least there was gratitude from one human.

"You're welcome, Otto."

Otto stood there wondering about what to say next, piping up when Larry was done with the cabinet and turned around and saw Otto standing there. "Lar' can I talk to you about something?" Otto asked. Larry shrugged in a lethargic manner. "What is it?"

"There's something that's bothering me." Otto said

"And what would that be?" Larry asked.

"Well, you know" Otto mumbled, holding on to his right arm and slumping forward in his awkward attempt to explain himself.

"About what happened, tonight. With my scrapbook, with everything between all of us . . ."

Larry was mindful at what the boy was getting at, and it made him a bit sick.

"You and Tuddrussel need to know something. You said you wanted to talk to me about my problems,_ fine._ We'll talk, please Larry, I want you to understand. I want to talk, and I'm ready." Otto said, to Larry it almost sounded like he was pleading.

"I'm afraid that I do feel that something should be settled." Larry said sadly. He rubbed his temple of a migraine that was forming.

"Good. Because from where I'm standing, you two had done nothing but beat around the bush with me and I'm tired of it, well, no more Mister, we're settling this now!"

Larry was shocked by this forcefulness Otto exerted.

"You mean right now?!" Larry shouted.

Otto crossed his arms in authority and huffed, absolutely exhausted he felt very insecure as he stood but pretended otherwise.

"Well, yeah!" Otto exclaimed. How obvious could you get Larry? If only he would listen. " The sooner we get done, the better, right?" The eight year old asked.

Larry slumped, he wanted to just tell Otto off and make him go back to bed and stay there for the rest of the night for being so bold with him. He gave in though, walking towards the door, glumly he replied it with

"Oh fine, you cheeky thing! I'm sure Tuddrussel must be worried sick about you and will want to be included in this conversation anyway."

Otto smiled, running ahead of Larry and turning to the opposite direction. Larry stopped to see the small blur that zoomed past him.

"Now what are you doing?" Larry called.

Otto stopped to respond to the robot that looked angry with him.

"I'll be there, hold on! I have to go to my room and get something." Otto said.

" You what?" Larry stumbled to ask.

Otto threw his arms up in exasperation. "Larry, just go to your room! I'll be right there in a minute." Otto then without missing a beat the child ran down the hall with Larry growling under his breath and heading straight for his room.

Larry sighed miserably at the thought of all this, maybe he WASN'T ready for Otto to talk. Maybe when Otto got back he should just tell him to wait for tomorrow, it's much to late now- Larry thought to himself. In spite of him being somewhat annoyed at this sudden want to talk, he was proud of the boy's turn around and determination, he had to admit. He walked into his room, stopping to see Tuddrussel curled up on the sofa, dozing. Larry smiled, "how cute." He said with sarcasm, but deep down he meant it. "Oh Tuddrussel, Wake up, _buddy._" Larry said with fake sweetness. He walked over to him and stood there above him, tapping his foot.

"Buck, wake up, this is important." Larry shook him by the shoulder, waking the man up Tuddrussel promptly tried to strike the robot. "Okay, okay, geez, what's up Lar'?" Tuddrussel sleepily asked. Tuddrussel looked around for Otto. "The kid alright?"

"He's fine, in fact I woke you up to talk about him." Larry said.

"What now?" Tuddrussel asked.

" He wants to talk to us about everything. I should be happy that he wants to tell us these kinds of things, but he's practically demanding for it! And at this hour, I should just tell him to wait for tomorrow when I can think straight." Larry rambled.

Tuddrussel snickered under his breath. "I told you he's got a lot of nerve."


	7. Picking Up The Pieces

"You can't just send him back to bed, Larry." Tuddrussel said. He sat sluggishly on Larry's sofa.

He let out a great big yawn, thinking he could use some coffee.

Larry raised an eyebrow to question why Tuddrussel should be sticking up for Otto at this time.

"All I'm saying is that this whole thing can wait," Larry said. "And don't tell me you're all for it."

Tuddrussel rubbed his neck, thinking about it.

"Well, he did say 'sooner we get it done, the better' right? And this was what you were wanting. I guess it's time for you to pay up, pal." Tuddrussel dryly replied.

"I mean, we had this whole talk before about the kid, and now you're actin' chicken about it once he comes around?"

Larry scowled, retorting with, "I just didn't think it would happen this way!" He reeled around to turn off his television.

"My mind is just overwhelmed by this, why did I let him go? Why did we let him get hurt?" Larry turned back to see Tuddrussel squirm uncomfortably with the thought.

"I know, I know…" Tuddrussel gritted his teeth. "You think I'm not kicking myself over this right now? Geeez Larry I don't wanna do this anymore than you do, but maybe he won't"-

"Why would he keep all these things away from us anyway?" Larry interrupted. "I think that's what really hurts. And even if I'm glad that he's changed his mind, it still does pain me to know that there's something wrong."

Tuddrussel hesitantly replied, "Maybe he kept quiet so we wouldn't worry."

Larry was about to say something when he heard the door open behind him. Tuddrussel leaned over to see. Hearing the familiar soft pitter patter that Otto made bare foot on the steel floor come toward them, Larry held back. Before turning his attention to Otto, he caught a glimpse of Tuddrussel, whose expression went from tired to nervous. Tuddrussel sat up straight all of a sudden too, becoming alert.

Well that isn't a good sign, Larry thought. Turning around, he saw Otto looking a little disheveled from that dashing off to his room and back. He looked down and noticed that he held his scrapbook tightly in his arms.

Tuddrussel and Larry eyed each other with unanimous worry. Otto tilted his head in wonder, not really sure why they seem so quiet and scared now.

"What?" Otto asked breathlessly.

Otto looked at his book with slight distain, he added, "You guys aren't scared of this old thing, are you?"

The two adults shook their heads. _As if_ they were scared, more like just highly uncomfortable. Otto was a little amused by this, but he wouldn't be cruel to show it.

"I just didn't think you'd want ether of us to see it again." Larry said. Nervously fiddling his fingers, to which Tuddrussel rolled his eyes at the robot's nervous tic. "Lar', just chill out for a minute, okay?" Tuddrussel said. Larry growled under his breath and snapped back, "Not now, Buck!" Tuddrussel crossed his arms and smirked behind Larry's back; despite being exhausted he found Larry's erratic behavior somewhat funny at the moment.

"Otto, maybe it's best if we do this later tomorrow." Larry said. Otto shook his head.

He knew he should have probably waited. He was aware that this was an inconvenient time to talk and could plainly see that Larry certainly did not want to have any of it. But he remembered that Larry somewhat badgered him into this unwillingly in the first place and Otto felt that he would try to break out of the agreement if he didn't push forward on the matter at hand, and Otto couldn't have the robot breaking a agreement to a discussion if he was the one who pushed him into it, now, could he? Otto himself didn't want to talk, as this was something that in his opinion should probably stay buried. But after knowing what these two had fretted over, he wanted his own moment to tell his friends to shut up and listen to his side of things before anyone else jumps to conclusions and hurts someone else again.

" Please hear me out, guys. It won't take long, I promise!" Otto said.

Biggest lie in the universe, thought Tuddrussel. Knowing Otto, it wasn't going to be quick in the slightest.

Otto lifted the book up to be able to open it, and then opened the back cover up to reveal the battered envelope that was taped to the back. Larry looked at the thing that was falling apart off of the album; not knowing the meaning of it he had a bad feeling growing inside him that he didn't want to know what it was doing there.

Larry, exasperated, looked to Tuddrussel for a sign that he had some control of this situation, and Tuddrussel looked back for the same thing, they were clueless.

"Otto- wait," Larry tried to stall, but he stopped his speech when Otto pulled out something, his eyes grew wide at the sight of that familiar little photo that frightened him before. Otto handed it to him, regrettably.

"I know you saw it earlier, I'll tell you now that I was pretty scared when I realized- But I know now it's not your guys' fault." Otto said apologetically. Larry gingerly took hold of the photo. He glanced at it, only to shoot a confused look to him.

"I don't understand, is this what you were wanting to talk about?

Otto shrugged, " There's more to it than _that. _There's other things I want to talk about but Tuddrussel told me you were pretty scared when you saw it. Now that I've calmed down from it all, I can't help but feel bad about it."

Peeved, Larry turned his head to Tuddrussel, who looked guilty at that comment.

"Oh he did, did he?" Larry sarcastically asked. Sighing in defeat, maybe he couldn't just escape fate, Larry thought. Larry offered a seat next to Tuddrussel. "Oh come now, how about we just set on the sofa and talk this out?"

Otto nodded and strolled over and sat down with Tuddrussel.

Larry looked at the photo, feeling very uncomfortable holding it he said,

"But Otto, just so you know, this will never be spoken of if you don't want to. I'm not making you do anything in this, this conversation will be entirely on your own free will."

"I know." Otto said, not willing to look him in the eye. Larry sat down next to Otto and attempted to give the photo back. Otto took it and laid it down on the book's surface. "I guess I should start by saying I'm sorry for letting you find out about them, this way."

"But Otto, there's no need to"- Larry tried to console but Otto looked up at him and piped up, "I just want you to know it's okay now." Otto insisted. "But I never meant for you guys to even see this, let alone hear of them."

"Never meant to? But it was in your album, why didn't you say something?" Larry asked.

"Just because it was in there, doesn't mean I would have _let _you look. With it being in what I thought was a safe place you'd ask about it and I would have said no, a thousand times no!" Otto retorted, making a face he remembered how cross he had been.

"I wanted to just tell you to not mess with the book at all. In the end I guess I didn't think you'd bother looking all the way in the back, a lot of the pages are blank towards the end, most people wouldn't even bother looking after noticing two or three blank pages, ya know?" Otto added. He lifted cover again to reveal the envelope.

"But because of how badly I handled the envelope over the years I guess it just fell apart and I didn't do anything about it because I forgot after never looking for so long, I honestly don't remember the last time I've looked at this." Otto finished; a hint of sadness fluttered out towards the end, as it hit him that he really had not looked at the contents of his album, let alone the photo of his parents since arriving on the satellite the first time.

"It's just that you had never talked about them, it's just so strange from you." Larry said concerned.

"But why go all the trouble to hide it?" Tuddrussel asked.

Otto frowned, he placed his index finger on the photo and traced around the figures that graced it. He spoke in a thoughtful manner, trying to consider his words carefully.

"It's just, something that means a lot to me. And I didn't think you'd like it if I were talking about them, or what had happened to them. Cause see, back at the orphanage, you're not allowed to talk about your family; you'll get in trouble cause 'nobody wants a kid that can't let go'. So I just never thought about it as being something that I should talk about. 'You're an orphan and you have to forget'; I used to get told that all the time." Otto rolled his eyes at that last part.

"See, I was protecting it. It's amazing that it managed to survive me handling at it at all, I used to hide it under my pillow, or in my shoe."

He flipped the album over to the front page.

"And when I first got this album I put it here."

He pointed to the picture of him in front of the orphanage, where above he wrote,

"My First Home."

Tuddrussel leaned forward, his arms resting on his legs he looked on attentively. Larry scooted closer and put his arm around Otto.

"But why did you take it off?" Larry asked.

"One day, Sister Thornly found the album during an inspection." Otto said timidly. He hated to think about the day he felt compelled to hide.

"I thought she was going to take it, but she didn't. She just looked at it, and threw it at me and said, _'Go ahead, look at them all you want, it's not like you're going to get adopted anyway.' _Cause ya' see, us kids knew that if you want to make an effort in impressing social workers and would be parents, you just don't talk about your old ones, ever._ You just don't._ And She said that nobody wants to see something as depressing as this. And after that I hid it somewhere safe and it would still be in here. So if I wanted to, I could see them when I felt like it. And not even Sister Thornly could take that away from me."

Tuddrussel thought all this was absolutely crazy! Never would he have believed that Otto had this drilled into his mind.

"Do you want to forget them?" Tuddrussel asked.

Otto became flustered at the idea, "No! Well, sort of. I just- I just don't like to think about them the way they are, but I can't just forget." Otto paused, seeing how confused Tuddrussel was it made him stop to think carefully again.

"Listen- I know they wouldn't like it, I know they'd be hurt. I know I would. But even though I don't look at this anymore, it doesn't mean I don't even try to remember them. I mean, if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have been reading, I wouldn't even care about history or anything without their encouragement."

"Oh- I see." Larry said astonished.

"And you would just listen to her?" Tuddrussel asked.

"If I didn't I wouldn't have made it past my first week there." Otto replied harshly. "Let alone _years._ Of course, when she said things like that it would ether bounce off me, or sink in. That time she got to me." The boy held himself in his arms, feeling a chill go up his spine as a rush of bad memories came to him.

Otto looked at his mom and dad with sad eyes. He could only hear their voices in faint whispers these days. It was all faded out from years of much more harsher words that a nun had planted in his mind from the start when he was put in her care.

"She said they weren't worth it." Otto said uneasily. "She said I wasn't worth the trouble ether." Otto sighed; he let himself have it again.

Larry felt alarmed and asked, "What do you mean? Who told you that?"

Otto felt another wave of sadness just rush over him, with a tremble in his voice he replied, "Sister Thornley. One of the things she would say to us was that everyone that was sent to her wasn't meant to be anything in life but a waste of time and money." Otto paused abruptly, trying to not let his emotions get the better of him.

"When she had me in her office today, she said some things to me that really hurt; like that I was nothing, and was never going to become anything but a delinquent. That she couldn't believe that people would actually want me around; And that there's always a reason for things, and when my parents died, it was because they were stupid to not watch for oncoming traffic and had no business living and because I was put in her care, I'm just as worthless too."

Otto timidly looked at Tuddrussel and Larry, who seemed to mirror each other for a moment, at first they were horrified by what was said. Then gazed at Otto with pity. And then just as quickly grew angry and felt hatred for the person who made this boy so miserable.

"Oh Otto, that harpy wouldn't know!" Larry exclaimed.

Tuddrussel nodded, putting a hand on Otto's shoulder. "Believe me kid, if anyone is going to be called worthless, it'd be her. You're worth it, or else why would we have taken you from her in the first place? We weren't going to risk our jobs for just any one." Tuddrussel matter-of-factly said.

Otto glared at Tuddrussel, quickly finding himself jumping to his other topic.

"But you did, five times today!" Otto retorted. Tuddrussel winced, backing off from him a little. "Yeah, but it was because of you. We wouldn't have if you hadn't left us back there, trying to work without you is damn near impossible." Tuddrussel said. "Otto, we're a team. And you darn well know it." Otto faintly smiled, "Yeah, I guess we are, huh?"

"Besides, it was only_ four." _Tuddrussel said.

"It's still not good." Otto replied dryly. "Besides, those dorks wouldn't know who Maximilien Robespierre was if he bit them in the"-

"Hey, you watch it mister!" Larry chided.

Otto looked at Larry sheepishly and giggled, "Sorry."

Tuddrussel shrugged, frankly saying, "You're right though. It's really not. And we tried out that many before eventually getting to you again because they all sucked. So I guess there's only one orphan history wiz in the world, and you're it."

Otto and Larry were both surprised by this moment of sincerity from Buck, and looked on with interest.

"Look kid, we know we put you through a lot of crap and we're not very proud of leaving you and trying to find some just like you. And believe me when I say that was stupid, because there's no one else like you anywhere on Earth, not even at any other point in history." Tuddrussel ruffled Otto's hair, the boy playfully pushed Tuddrussel's hand away.

"And if someone wants to tell you, or me otherwise, that you're no good- I'll show them a thing or two with my phaser." Tuddrussel tapped on his utility belt where he kept his guns to drive home the "matter of fact" nature of that statement. Otto smiled, knowing that Tuddrussel meant that full heartedly. "That means a lot coming from you, Big Guy."

"No problem, squirt." Tuddrussel replied.

Otto closed his book, and held it to his chest. Frowning, a form of words that he knew had to be said began to appear.

"I want to say something." Otto said. Anxiety began to form in his heart from what he found difficult to let out.

"See, when I had my mom and dad, they were my world. When they died, my world went with them. When I was sent to the orphanage everyone said it's best forget they never existed and start over, and if I just moved on, I might have gotten sent into a nicer foster home, or even adopted if I was good enough." Otto said. He became visibly upset, his eyes beginning to fill up with tears, as he never thought to reveal anything about this he gulped a breath to hold back and then looked down in embarrassment as he went on saying,

"But that day never came. And so I went to new world- books, even if I'd get in trouble for it, I did it because it was what made me happy. It made me feel safe and I could just pretend to be somewhere else for just a little while." Otto glanced at his audience; seeing they were heavily concerned he tried to wrap it up before he started to cry.

"And when you guys came into my room, and took me away, you two became my world. I felt really happy, and for the first time in a long time, safe. And then when we fought, and I got mad and Sister Thornley took me away, it was like me losing my parents all over again, because it looked like I was never going to see you guys ever again. I was afraid of losing the one thing that's close to a real family, and you guys are mine, despite everything. Please don't leave me like that, I won't run off again if I get mad, I promise. When I said back there that I'd be good, I do mean it." Otto looked up at them. Larry scooted over and comforted him, embracing him and Otto willingly accepted it, letting himself be held in Larry's cool to the touch metal encasing.

"Oh Otto, you're already good, you prove it everyday." Larry cooed, holding him tightly. Otto sniffed and wiped a tear away. "Thank you." Otto trembled. He wiped another tear desperately, hating the fact that he let himself do it. Larry took his hand away to stop him from trying to get rid of them.

"No, no, just let it out." Larry said gently. "It's okay to cry, there's no need to hide it from anyone."

"I used to be a crybaby, that's why I had that nickname." Otto said bitterly. "I don't think I can stand to anymore."

"Well, no matter. You're not in that barbaric twenty first century anymore, you can do as you like here."

Otto let out a breathless laugh, the tears flowed freely as he snuggled close to Larry and hid himself, and Larry tried to coax him out.

"There, there, doesn't feel better to just let go?"

"Uhh huh." Otto murmured out. Larry had one arm let go of Otto to reach over to the table near him to grab a tissue and handed it to Otto.

"And if it means anything to you, you're parents would be very proud of you. Just like how we are." Larry said.

"Thank you." Otto said, relieved.

Otto hugged him tightly, looking up at the guardians he had grown to love, and knowing that they felt the same made him feel so happy.

"I love you guys, just thought you should know." Otto quietly said.

Larry and Tuddrussel exchanged a look of shock. They didn't really know what to say. Tuddrussel's expression softened, with a faint smile he replied, "Same to you, kid."

They continued to talk into the night. Even actually have a few moments of normalcy by joking with each other. Which for everyone concerned, was a blessing.

"So Otto, when you said you meant _everything _from back there, I can totally just have your dessert whenever right?"

"Yeah, over my dead body!"

Until Otto actually fell asleep from exhaustion, there was not a moments rest.

Tuddrussel picked up the kid and carried him off to his room. Larry barely comprehended it and went right into bed and into hyper sleep mode as soon as Tuddrussel said good night and the door shut behind him.

Groggy, Otto woke up to being carried away. Opening his eyes he realized it was Tuddrussel who held him, his head rested on his shoulder and noticed that he was moving and quickly grabbed a hold of the material of Tuddrussel's uniform.

"Hey, Tuddrussel . . ." Otto murmured out.

Tuddrussel smiled, pushing Otto up a little. "Yeah?"

Otto had difficulty trying to concentrate, his brain wanted to shut off to sleep.

"Maybe tomorrow. . . we can play Super Extreme Spy Tag?"

"Sound's like a plan."


	8. Now There's an Idea

If it hadn't been for his internal clock waking him up, Larry would have never bothered to get out of bed that morning. Realizing how late they were, he only made a quick breakfast for the two humans that consisted of English muffins and jellies. Cheerfully, Larry came into their room and flashed on the lights while humming his favorite Tin Pan Alley tunes in such a way that would drive any decent, non-morning person crazy. "It's time to get up, guys. We should expect a mission any minute now." Larry said briskly.

The two squirmed and growled and pleaded to turn off the lights.

"Nooooo…. too soon!" Otto muttered, moving the blanket over his head.

"Dang it, Larry, can't you can the Snow White routine for one mornin'?" Tuddrussel said, grabbing his pillow and throwing it at Larry, missing by a long shot. Larry laughed and wagged his finger mockingly. "Oh Tuddrussel, you really should work on your aim. I do believe you're losing your touch."

"I'll show you who's losing their touch!"

Larry smiled and quickly moved out of the room and shut the door before Tuddrussel decided to have at him.

Tuddrussel slowly got out of bed, and trudged along to pick up his pillow. Looking over he saw that Otto was still trying to sleep. Smirking, Tuddrussel walked over to Otto's bed and smacked him with the pillow. "_Oof-_ Why?" Otto whined.

"You heard Larry. And we better give him what for, for waking us up like this! And if I'm up, it means you have to be up too, Sidekick Boy." Tuddrussel said as a matter of factly. Otto took the blanket off his head and sat up; putting on his glasses he smiled with the understanding that Tuddrussel was planning on starting some shenanigans.

They got out of the bedroom and walked together to the kitchen where Larry had just put a plate of bacon down on the table. Otto happily dug into the strawberry jam and slathered it on an English muffin, eating it almost ravenously. Tuddrussel growled about not having eggs or sausage to eat and just ate the bacon. "Well, what do you want me to do about it? I'll make it up to you later." Larry said as he poured coffee into Buck's cup. "I was thinking about trying a new recipe, I'm sure you'll enjoy it." Larry added.

"Oh- _I'm sure." _ Tuddrussel replied.

After consuming two of those English muffins and a handful of bacon Otto walked back to the bedroom unnoticed, while Larry and Tuddrussel bickered nonsensically about lunch. Otto went in and looked around, wondering where Tuddrussel had left his scrapbook last night. He hurried over to his bookshelf, seeing it lay on the top next to his action figures. He picked it up and opened it to look back at the contents, grimacing.

Otto felt somewhat compelled to keep it, it _was _apart of his past like it or not, and after all, he had put so much effort into it. But he did not want to see it for a while, a really long while. And he didn't want anyone to be bothered by it again. After the long talk, he saw that there was no way was he going to have it in his possession. He looked at the negative images one last time quickly; wanting to be brief he shook his head with distain for each photo that caught his eye.

_The only thing worthless is this stupid album. _Otto thought to himself.

He flipped to the back to find the envelope and briskly ripped it off the back cover. He looked down to the bottom shelf where there was a box. He sat down on the floor and pulled it out and opened it, revealing a ton of photographs he had taken since being taken in by the time squad unit. Smiling, he liked these better, because they were happy things to look at; NORMAL things to look at, pictures of exciting places he'd been to and where he was having fun, of people who he admired and got to meet, and of his family who he really couldn't live without. Otto thought to himself that he really needed to remember to ask Larry for a new scrapbook for these, like a red one. He opened the envelope and pulled out the picture of his parents and placed it down with the rest. He looked at them, seeing that he settled it down next to a picture not unlike it. With Otto sitting on Tuddrussel's shoulders, with Tuddrussel laughing at an irritated Larry as the photo was taken. So what if they weren't his real parents? They're the best thing possible.

Otto quietly walked past Larry as he cleaned the kitchen floor. He opened up the storage closet to find an empty shoebox, perfect for the job at hand. Placing the album in there he quickly went into the Biosphere. A gentle breeze came greeting him as he strolled in, the kid had always amused by how this space imitated Earth's natural weather by the time of day; it was supposed to be noon, and it certainly felt to him that it could be as the sunlight shined brightly through the glass that protected it. He went to the toolshed and dug around for the right instrument, finding a small gardening shovel. He walked back out to roam the area. There were so many places to put it; in the woods, in the garden, by the pond, by the gazebo, they were all fine choices. Otto made his way through the flower garden, where at the moment spring mixes of daffodil and crocus and hyacinth and calico- bushes gracefully bloomed. There was a tree nearby with a patch of empty dirt surrounding it where Larry had just removed a garden light; it was convenient just so that Otto could bury it inconspicuously. He carefully stepped around the flowers to get to the tree. He plopped down on the grass and quietly dug a hole large enough for the box. It was tough, Larry hadn't tended the ground and so it was difficult for his arms to get the dirt out. It took him about twenty minutes to complete, with his hands tired he felt that the box should be safe now. He sat the box down and stared at it.

"You were there when I needed you, but I don't need you anymore. " Otto said plainly. He began to shove the dirt back in. As he did so, the sensation that someone was watching crept up over him. He stopped, looking around him he felt unsure if he was alone. Opening his mouth to say something, his train of thought was interrupted by the sound of the alarm, it blared through the biosphere and it made him jump out of his hide. Hoping no one saw that, Otto panicked, quickly shoving dirt with his hands back into place, patting it down vigorously. He hopped through the flowers and scampered off to get to the control room, the instability alarm echoing through the room it almost hurt.

Larry typed in the code to get the information needed to see their mission. Tuddrussel walked in casually and took a hold of Larry's chair. "Hey, how's things?" Tuddrussel pleasantly asked. Larry smiled. "Oh, well I'm perfectly fine, thank you, Buck." The mission began to appear on the screen. It showed a woman named Oprah Winfrey, in Chicago, USA circa 2002. Larry made an unusual tick noise, so very aware of the danger of that time period.

"Maybe he won't care," Tuddrussel said nervously.

"Care about what?" Otto asked. Larry and Tuddrussel turned to see him standing in the doorway. Otto walked up to them, at first wondering what they were talking about. He saw the image of a woman he was quite familiar with; he used to see her on television in the afternoons at the orphanage when there was nothing else on. "Oh, Oprah Winfrey, she was a popular and influential talk show host, advocating in social justice causes such as women's rights and literacy she was a force in the American media for a long time!" Otto spoke up. Otto looked at the worried faces of his friends, he smiled impishly and folded his arms.

"Oh come on guys, you don't need to worry about my time." Otto said.

"We just worry that we'll run into Sister Thornly again. Last thing I want to do is cause a big commotion with authorities, 2003 standards or otherwise." Larry said.

"Well, sure. I get that." Otto said as dusted himself off of dirt nonchalantly, forgetting that they would probably wonder what he was doing to get all that dust on his hands and clothes.

" But if something does happen, then we'll deal with it, if she wants to come after me, she'll have to take us all on tooth and nail." Otto replied as-a-matter-of-factly. "Right, Tuddrussel?"

Tuddrussel nodded, "Right, kid."

So down they went to see Ms. Winfrey, who had decided quit her talk show abruptly and focus on producing trashy reality television series that centered on the lives of socialites who never did anything reverent to the world. Unsurprisingly these were popular to the masses, but nevertheless the Time Squad made sure that Oprah was persuaded into going back to her old show, after terrorizing her.

When the mission was considered done and the guys were about to go back, Oprah had pulled Larry off from them to talk about dieting plans and left Tuddrussel and Otto at the back of the studio lot. It left them to talk for a long time, mostly about how funny it was to see Oprah completely lose it when they sabotaged her footage and ruined the reputations of many people thanks to Larry's editing tricks. Then they spoke about how they were going to have fun once they got home, and how their game of Super Extreme Spy Tag was to actually go down as planned. But after a while, a mood shifted, Tuddrussel just sort of drifted off into space, leaving Otto to sit in uncomfortable silence.

"Say, Otto, I've been thinking." Tuddrussel said uneasily. Otto looked up and could see that Tuddrussel was serious.

"What about?" Otto asked, concerned.

"I know Larry wasn't too thrilled about coming to your time after the last mission, but I gotta wonder, what would you do if you saw that Sister Thornly again?"

Otto looked at Tuddrussel confused. "I-I don't know." He stammered out. "Probably scream."

"Maybe we can fix that." Tuddrussel said.

"What?" Otto asked.

"I was thinking that maybe, we could go over to that old orphanage of yours and…oh I don't know, give her the biggest scare of her life." Tuddrussel said unhumorously.

Otto raised his eyebrows in fear, never would he have gotten the idea to do anything menacing to Sister Thornly.

"Are you crazy?!" Otto said. "What made you think that was a good idea?"

Tuddrussel laughed, much to Otto's annoyance. "You thought I was just blowing steam when I said I'd get back at her?"

Otto eyed him with a look that perfectly said, _"Yes" _

Tuddrussel scoffed. "Well, I'm not. And I'll bet you'd want to see her skirts fly if you got the chance."

Otto cringed in horror. "Buck, I don't want to see _anything _on that woman fly."

Tuddrussel rolled his eyes and poked Otto's chest. "Now this is no time for jokin' around. I mean it, we should totally "fix her rocker" if you catch my drift." Tuddrussel said slyly.

Otto looked at Buck for any sign of regret, hoping that he wasn't serious. "Buck, we'd be committing a felony."

"She committed at least six last time you were with her." Tuddrussel replied harshly.

Otto shrugged, he had to agree with him there.

"Well…maybe it WOULD be kinda fun…" Otto hesitated.

"That's my boy!" Tuddrussel exclaimed. Grabbing Otto before he was aware of the oncoming attack Tuddrussel gave him a noogie, with Otto squirming and protesting. "Will you knock that off?!" Otto shouted.

"Not in your life!" Tuddrussel jokingly said. He let go of Otto and jumped to his feet. "Come on, kid, lets go find Larry, I'm starting to wonder if Oprah's high jacked him."

Otto smoothed his hair down and grumbled as he stood up. "Don't cha think Larry is going to say 'no' to this idea?" Otto asked. Tuddrussel had an answer to that.

"Well duh, Otto, but see when we had took you back, we forgot something."

Otto tried to think, what on Earth did they forgot…

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx

"You don't mean…" Larry said, dreading the answer.

"I do, Larry." Tuddrussel said.

Larry was so ashamed with himself. And it didn't help that Otto and Tuddrussel found the predicament hilarious. "There is _nothing _funny about leaving children in different time zones!" Larry shouted. "Otto, you especially should understand!"

Otto stopped laughing, knowing it wasn't something to laugh at and terrible thought about the poor sap who was stuck with Sister Thornly and genuinely felt awful about it. But at the same time, the fact that Tuddrussel and Larry had just up and took other kids and then carelessly plopped then in random orphanages and time periods, that was horribly funny.

"I'm sorry, but come on, what were you thinking?" Otto asked.

"Not at all." Larry said begrudgingly.

"So, how about it, buddy?" Tuddrussel smirked, shaking Larry's shoulder.

Larry sighed, supposing that if he wanted to do anything right concerning Time Squad related affairs, he thought that putting a bunch of displaced kids back where they came from was probably a good decision.

"All right." Larry said, relenting.

So with Larry telling Otto and Tuddrussel, "Don't you two do anything stupid!" The robot zapped to the cold basement of the old orphanage that they took Otto out of.


	9. All In Good Fun

"Tuddrussel, I think we went overboard." Otto said. He balanced his feet on the lower rail of the iron fence and held tightly to a bar on the top rails.

Tuddrussel was using his high-tech binoculars to see the action. "No such thing, and it's too late to back out now, what with all those hell spawns in there as our witnesses." Otto snickered at Tuddrussel's comment in spite of himself. Tuddrussel pulled Otto gently off the railing and onto the ground. "Watch it, kid. I think that's her."

Sister Thornly had pulled up to the curb of the orphanage of her barely working and ancient Volkswagen beetle. She got out and stormed into the house and slammed the door.

"Geez, what's she got up her butt, anyway?" Tuddrussel carelessly asked.

"Satan." Otto quickly replied. They both cracked up laughing and Tuddrussel gave Otto a high five. "Now shush." Tuddrussel said. Otto covered his mouth with his fist, trying to stifle laughter.

They watched the unfolding commotion that lay inside the old house. Tuddrussel had bribed the kids with money to stay quiet while he and Otto had rigged Sister Thornly's office, making it into a booby trapped pit of doom that an Egyptian Pharaoh would be proud of to have near the entrance to his tomb.

Tuddrussel turned the volume up on the sonic sound and bent down so no one would notice him gawking.

They could hear the woman's voice, she was griping at the children and there were what sounded like snickering coming from inside. Then suddenly it got quiet; Otto grew still as he wondered if she was reaching for her office door yet. Then, a blood curdling scream and an enormous snapping and bashing of metal could be heard from inside, god forbid what Tuddrussel could pick it up, the whole neighborhood could probably hear it. Otto cringed, that must have been ugly to witness. "Ooooh, ye-ouch!"

Tuddrussel chuckled "Gotcha, ya old buzzard!"

"_What is the meaning of this?! Who did this?! WHO GODDAMMIT!"_

Otto and Tuddrussel snickered at Sister Thornly's rage.

"_Umm, Sister Thornly, it was Otto."_

"_Don't lie to me, girl. He ran off you idiot, now tell me who put tar and mouse traps all over the floor rigged all those eggs and feathers to go flying-_

Otto was rolling on the sidewalk laughing so hard. Tuddrussel did all he could to keep quiet enough to keep listening.

"_But it WAS Otto, ma'am. He came back with these two guys while you were out and one was a robot and he took that Sydney kid with him and the other guy was REALLLLY big and he and Otto just went and did all that stuff and-."_

"_Gabriella you stupid little- Oww, robots, you're telling me a robot came in and took, oh for the love of God- SYD GET YOUR ASS IN HERE RIGHT NOW!"_

"_But he's not here, Gabbie's tellin the truth. Otto WAS here."_

"_Dude, Otto's still hanging around."_

"_What the hell are you talking about, Trevor?"_

"_Just look out the window, Sister, they're out there laughing their asses off right now."_

There was when Tuddrussel lost it, he burst out laughing and not caring for a moment that the orphans spilled the secret, or even that Sister Thornly was now aware of them, as she stared in horror as the children were right. Otto looked up and saw her from the window and got an idea. "Hey, Buck, left me up for a moment." Otto said breathlessly. Tuddrussel calmed down briefly to do it. "Okay, but then we got to scram real quick." Otto giggled, "All right!"

Tuddrussel put the sonic hearing device and the binoculars back into his utility belt and picked up Otto, placing him on his shoulders. Otto waved at the nun defiantly, blowing a big raspberry and laughed as the nun's face went from pink to a seething red. Tuddrussel smirked at her, holding on to Otto he started to run before something bad happened.

"I told you it was a great idea!" Tuddrussel said. Otto held onto Tuddrussel's neck for dear life, bobbing up and down he wished that Tuddrussel would stop running. "Okay, okay, you were right!" Otto said. "It WAS fun, I've never seen Sister Thornly that mad before, I thought she was going to explode!"

Tuddrussel chuckled, "I think it would have been funnier if she did just that."

He continued to run through the city, only stopping for a moment he took out his walkie-talkie to communicate with Larry. "Hey, Larry? Are you done yet?"

"Yes, I'm on my way back, you're at the gas station near by, right?"

"Almost."

"Almost? What do you mean?"

Tuddrussel didn't answer him. Instead he put the walkie-talkie back in the belt and pretended that it never happened. "You wanna keep riding?" Tuddrussel asked.

"No, that running made me kinda dizzy." Otto muttered.

"Oh, my bad." Tuddrussel said.

He took Otto off him and put him down carefully. They then walked a block to the creepy gas station.

"I guess we'll wait then?" Otto asked.

Tuddrussel sighed. "Yeah, we can get some slushies or something though."

"Cool!" Otto said.

"I don't think so."

Tuddrussel and Otto froze, Larry just snuck up behind them.

"You two didn't do anything sinister, I hope?" Larry frowned. They looked like they had been up to no good, what with them having small patches of tar and feathers on their clothes, certainly.

"Not more than _usual._" Tuddrussel said.

"Hmmph. Well, I suppose we should get going then, if you're quite done harassing nuns for today."

Otto snickered, thinking that Larry probably knew along what Tuddrussel wanted to do.

"I'm ready if you're ready, Otto?" Tuddrussel asked.

"Yep, let's go back home!" Otto said.

Larry smiled as he typed in the coordinates for the satellite, and pressed the button that would zap them back home.

-author's note-

thanks to the people who stuck with this story and gave me advice and encouragement, you know who you are ;) You all know I don't own this, Cartoon Network/TimeWarner does and I hope we can all finally have a DVD of it someday.


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